Fall 2010/Winter 2011 Issue

Irvine, The Master Plan and Zombies - Fashion Interest - Organizations - Image - Greek Men

s t a f f

Editor-In-Chief Kristen Viray

Senior Editor Amanda Robbins

Acquisitions Editor Jose Daniel Ruiz

Copy Editors Gilliane Richardson and Emmeline Domingo

Marketing Director Nathan Osorio

Director of Fundraising and Promotions Kristina Wong

Our Mission To create awareness beyond our common cultural community in an effort to educate, unite, and transcend barriers. We aim to provide our readers with insight into the world they live in, with the hopes of inciting activism.

Creative Director Priya Gohil

Layout Editors Priya Gohil Jose Daniel Ruiz

Photographers Jose Daniel Ruiz Gilda Nowparast Carlo Vallo Cruz

Bloggers Benjamin Bray Suzanne Casazza Michael Chin Darius Dehghan

Amber Di Ferdianand Amanda Kim Wes Koseki Carly Lanning

Neil Pu Gilliane Richardson Vatche Yousefian

Carly Lanning Florence Ng Nathan Osorio

Priyanka Saigal Emma Shirley Holly Slidder

Web Editors Carly Lanning Joanna McCoy

Book Shelves? Books.... panorama of something

Cover photographs by Carlo Vallo Cruz - Unlabeled photos by Jose Daniel Ruiz Cover Illustration by Priya Gohil

Volume 4, Issue 1

Writers Ashley Brennan Spyro Glaretas Lori Ke

Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers, Despite the additional fee increases and budget cuts, the INCITE Team promises to continually strive to provide an open space in which students are free to voice their opinions and express their creativity.

A sense of fear has settled into the bones of the student body. Some have taken it upon themselves to take above the maximum number of units in the rush to graduate and cut costs. Others are fading into the background during what were once stimulating discussions. Many currently find themselves falling between the cracks with a decreasing number of classes but ever-growing class sizes.

For this issue, we decided to focus on what the University of California hasn’t taken away from us: our spirit.

While INCITE has been dedicated to bringing to the table issues of concern from all over the world, we feel it is important to localize our concerns. We dedicate this issue to our student organizations and the individuals who continue to thrive in the midst of these changes.

Photo Here: Building with the Stairs the one that looks like Escher

Here’s lookin’ at you, UCI. Kristen Viray Editor-in-Chief INCITE Magazine

“Blurb Blurb Blurb Blurb Blurb Blurb Blurb Blurb”

In this Issue of INCITE

LANDSCAPE

PORTRAIT

Small Houses: How Much Space Do We Really Need?

Irvine, The Master Plan and Zombies

Can Anteaters Party?

pg 2 pg 3 pg 5

COMPOSITION UC Irvine’s Irvine Queers

Mixed Student Organization

Importance of Poetry in the Classroom Fashion Interest Group

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pg 17

CREATIVITY

pg 7 pg 9 pg 10 pg 12

PERSPECTIVE Eating Disorders: The Fight to Prevent Them Recovering the Emptiness

Something About Kyle

Just Another Number

pg 21

UNBOUND

pg 14 pg 15

Greek Men Have Expiration Dates A Taste of Turkey

pg 22 pg 23

A-MUSE-ING 7 Most Awkward Things...

pg 24

LANDSCAPE

SMALL HOUSES

HOW MUCH SPACE DO WE REALLY NEED?

By Rosa Vargas

Photos courtesy of smallhousestyle.com and i.treehugger.com

Humans occupy a very small place upon the Earth. If the two billion inhabitants who people its surface were all to stand upright and somewhat crowded together, as they do for some big public assembly, they could easily be put into one public square twenty miles long and twenty miles wide. All humanity could be piled up on a small Pacific islet.

The grown-ups, to be sure, will not believe you when you tell them that. They imagine that they fill a great deal of space.

The Little Prince

I first read the Little Prince when I was twelve years old and, for some reason, the above quote stuck with me. Of course it is a commentary on over-inflated egos and humans’ tendency to give themselves too much importance. Yet I believe its literal meaning is also very profound and relevant.

We take up a lot of space in this world but, with the issues of overpopulation and over exploitation of resources, can we afford to expand so much? For us Americans, our homes have gone from 1,600 sq feet in the 1970s to over 2,500 sq feet now (Lawrence, Robyn Griggs. Trend Alert: Americans Want Smaller Homes. Natural Home Magazine, 6/22/2009). Yet the number of people living in these bigger houses has gone down, given the trend of smaller families. Have we grown bigger? Or is it that we have grown greedier with no regard (or just plain apathy) towards the dwindling natural resources of others? These others being future generations, cute pandas and many other species, as well as fellow human beings who also need a place to live.

Luckily for us, there is a little trend going around that offers an alternative to the unnecessary over expansion, overspending, and over-use of resources.

This is the Small House Movement. The Small House Movement concerns

itself with providing, may I add beautiful and cool-looking, housing alternatives much smaller than the wasteful bigger concepts (resourcesforlife.com/smallhouse-society).

This movement grew out of a concern for what we are doing to the environment. Moreover, aside from offering a sustainable housing alternative, jumping into the Small House Movement bandwagon also offers a more affordable housing alternative. With the current state of the economy and a turbulent housing market, the idea of cheaper houses that still comfortably meet all your needs is very appealing. The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company offers ready-made houses ranging from a bit less than $39,000 to about $54,000, ranging from 65 sq feet to 130 sq feet respectively (Tumbleweedhouses. com). Also from this company, you can buy construction plans for $695 and build yourself (or I guess you could get a contractor, though a lot of the people following the Small House Movement like to make their own houses, after all this house stands for the idea of sustainability) a two or three bedroom house of 777 or 874 sq feet respectively (Tumbleweedhouses.com).

Now, why on earth would anyone choose to pay more for extra space that he or she probably doesn’t use; be wasteful when one could very well be responsible and sensible without sacrificing style or comfort; and willingly bury him or herself in a mortgage when there is the possibility of having a nice place without the steep price beats me. Are we not rational beings driven by the idea of gaining stuff? (If this is not true then I have been told lies in my logic class!).

And here is this proposition of having a home, an environmentally responsible way of life, an economic way of life that doesn’t burden us with too many money matters, and a beautiful house to boot; isn’t that a four-dimensional win? So why not go with it?

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LANDSCAPE

Irvine, the Master Plan and Zombies

A tale of questionable morality

It’s here, in the origin of the city, that we find the culprit responsible for discretely controlling the lives of thousands of college students and residents alike: the master plan

By Nathan X. Osorio

T

he homes that line the desolate streets are identical: drained of all color and personality. The floor plans are the same in both design and frequency: three bed two bath, three bed two bath, two bed one and a half bath, three bed two bath. All signs of life, like the casual litter you find in your average city drain or the grade school acorn bird feeder adorably hung over the porch, are nonexistent. The only noise comes from the rustle of a lone tumbleweed blowing down the boulevard.

This is not a nuclear test site in the middle of the Nevada desert or the beginning of a bad post-apocalyptic zombie flick. This is Irvine.

Any resident of Irvine, home grown or not, will tell you that there’s more to this city than many would like to think. Whether it be the prefabricated arquitectural motifs or the lack of homeless (dogs and humans alike), certain details set this American suburb aside from the rest. For those new to the streets that have more

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prestigious alma maters than our parents or for those who’ve just never bothered to ask why, let’s draw our attention to the beginning, where all the strangeness began.

UC Irvine was established in 1965 after the Irvine Company, a privately owned real estate development company, donated 1,000 acres of the then rural and undeveloped Irvine Ranch to the University of California for one dollar. Land grants and purchases of this nature are commonplace for civic leaders and organizations as they often actively pursue colleges as a way to assure a favorable future in the public eye. As Stanley Brunn, writer of Geography and Politics of America notes, “aside from the state capital, the state university [is] probably the second most important political prize a city or region could be awarded”. The Irvine Company and its donating of land to the University of California was only a single step in the real estate company’s multibillion dollar effort to design the perfect city that would later stand as a model for future urban planning around the world. The efforts were officially “drafted [in the early 1960’s as a] sophisticated Master Plan that would guide the orderly development of the entire Irvine Ranch” including the land on which the university and the surrounding area was built (Irvine Company).

And it’s here, in the origin of the city, that we find the culprit responsible for discretely controlling the lives of thousands of college students and residents alike: the master plan.

In a constant attempt to enforce the principles laid out by the master plan,

staff members in the company’s “Urban Planning & Design Group” were designated to housing projects to ensure that “all buildings constructed on land sold by the company [including student housing] … sustain … The Irvine Company’s guidelines and [standard] … of high-quality communities” (Irvine Company). Throughout all of the current student housing including Mesa Court, Vista Del Campo and the surrounding Irvine Company owned apartment complexes, all have in common the Irvine Company’s ideology that permeates visually from the subtly tailored aesthetic details. Through the Irvine Company’s fine tuning of their communities’ visual and physical characteristics, including what it deems as “adequate setbacks, compatible architecture, consistent street trees, appropriate signs, and the screening of service areas, utilities and exterior lighting”, they attempt to illustrate their ideology of orderly and controlled urban planning (Irvine Company).

As residents of Irvine we’re all subject to the restrictions placed upon us by the master plan. As a former resident of one of UC Irvine’s 1st year housing complexes, I’ve experienced first-hand many of the restrictions the master plan has placed on student residents and their living spaces. Influential in the design, construction and maintenance of all structures and areas built in the City of Irvine are three fundamental design principles. As stated in the master plan the design principles are: “Design integrity, Timeless architecture, and Four-sided architecture.” Although each design principle limits residents of student housing by restricting them to abide to pre-determined standards, the principle of “four-sided architecture” best illustrates the clash of student lifestyles and the master plan. The Irvine Company states that the principal of “four-sided architecture” is the concept of “using the same material on all four sides of a structure so that, no matter what vantage point it is viewed from, the design is never interrupted and all the parts are perceived as part of a unified whole observation” (Irvine Company). Taking into consideration this design principle, the facades of each of the housing complexes are identical down to the very window curtains.

Many critique Irvine for being sterile and cold in its presentation and rigidity of architecture. Second year Film and Media Studies major and current VDC Norte resident Celeste Sandoval communicates this common concern, “It’s difficult to live in a college environment where creativity and freedom is not encouraged but restricted by guidelines.”

So where and when does the master plan stop and the lives of Irvine residents begin? When approached for a statement regarding the stringent community control enforced by the master plan, Irvine Company spokespersons remained silent.

Regardless of the questionable morality behind the master plans effect on the student population, the student community in Irvine has developed, flourished and, like in a bad post apocalyptic zombie film, risen from the dead.

Photographed by Gilda Nowparast

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LANDSCAPE

Can Anteaters Party?

By Emma Shirley

W

hen I attend parties at campuses such as UCLA or UCSB, people generally laugh or extend their condolences when I say that I attend UCI. Someone has even tried to console me by saying that at least I got to spend one night at a good party. I immediately jump to the defensive for UCI and say how there are parties; it is just about who you know. To prove my point, I thought I would highlight the various party “districts” and ask UCI students, and students at the community colleges in Irvine to prove once and for all that UCI kids can party.

Thursday through Saturday nights, UCI students can be found walking along Arroyo Drive, where the fraternity and sorority houses are, driving out to Newport Beach to friends’ houses and “unofficial” fraternity houses, and wandering through the apartment complexes such as Vista Del Campo or Dartmouth. In addition to Newport, off-campus parties include parties hosted by fraternities that bus people, mainly girls, to clubs and other cool venues, allowing students to escape Irvine for the night. Big venues include “Bright N’ Tight”, “Heaven and Hell”, and “Pikes of the Caribbean.” A note of caution: get to the bus stop early, or fight your way through mobs of people trying to get on the bus. I tried going to “Pikes of the Caribbean”, but gave up and went to a kickback instead after two full buses left, and there were still at least two busloads of people waiting. The crowd was pushing and shoving but, if you are deter-

mined to get to that venue, you will be rewarded with a ride to and from the event , as well as a night of dancing with fellow Anteaters. However, these events are open to girls only, unless a fraternity member invites a “bro” outside the frat.

While Arroyo Drive contains UCI’s “frat row”, it is easier than you think to find parties that are not exclusive to members of the Greek system. Alysha Kassam, a sophomore psychology major at UCI, recalls walking out on a “thirsty Thursday. “There were a lot of parties going on as I walked down Arroyo Drive. A lot of people were obviously on their way to parties and I caught up with some friends who took me to a sorority party.” As Alysha points out, it is not too difficult to get into parties exclusive to those in the Greek system. As I found in the first few weeks of school, you can also generally find people that will invite you into their places on Arroyo with a “the more the merrier” outlook. My friends and I left one party, but were invited in by some international students to a dance party at the IPACS house.

Newport Beach has parties for everyone, with a network of bars, clubs, and parties going on in beach front houses. Newport events are generally open to anyone, if you know the right people to ask, or know someone living there. Becky Lu, a sophomore at UCI, says, “Newport parties can get pretty big with people packed into a house, but the big ones get shut down by the cops a lot. It’s better to know someone living

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there, but if you just walk around, you can usually find people that will invite you in.”

Vista Del Campo and VDC Norte are good places to look as well. Brian Gorrie, a sophomore from Irvine Valley College, recalls, “I went to a party in VDC Norte one Friday and there were about 40 people in one apartment playing beer pong, listening to music and taking shots. That was an awesome night.” New people kept coming as late as 12:30 a.m. There were handles of vodka, Captain Morgan, and even a bottle of Southern Comfort. Speakers boomed music while people played beer pong. A mysterious pile of radioactive red barf out in the hallway provided the cherry on top for the evening. Apparently, someone chugged red wine before coming and taking shots, which, though I admire their tenacity, I do not endorse.

Adrian Ortiz, a senior at UCI, attended the party as well and claims, “VDC is an easily accessible place in terms of parties. Off-campus places are even more accessible because you don’t have an RA (Resident Advisor) checking on you because of sound issues.”

Unless you know someone in Campus Village, I’d skip party hunting (crashing) there because Adrian, a three year resident of Campus Village, says, “Parties happen infrequently, I’d say that maybe like once or twice a quarter you might find a party, and there’s maybe about twenty people at most, so it’s not really like a huge thing, but they do happen.” I went

to a birthday party in CV and although it was fun with the birthday boy getting appropriately trashed, it was pretty cramped with about 25 people. However, these more intimate kickbacks give you the chance to meet new friends at UCI and expand your social network even further. When you finally give up and light your biology book on fire late Friday night, you may get that “Heyyy party at my friend’s on Arroyo Drive! Get over here now!” text.

For all you anxious freshman out there in the Mesa Court dorms and Middle Earth, I suggest looking elsewhere for a big party and be careful if you decide to party in your dorm. Nina Parikh, a sophomore at UCI who lived in Mesa Court her first year, claims, “Dorm parties were hard because the dorm rooms were so small. RA’s patrolled at night so you couldn’t be loud at all”. As freshman, my friends and I gave up on UCI parties, earning our nickname as the “travelers”, attending parties in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Long Beach, Santa Ana, and Santa Barbara. The only place I’ve partied this year: UCI. I have found parties or kickbacks in Irvine every single weekend, so I say to everyone in a similar pursuit, the

farther you advance in your college years, the more connections you will find, expedite the process and start meeting people ASAP. You never know when you will meet a fellow party animal.

This year, I met Jack Nguyen who shared his epic tale of a frat party he went to, describing it as “awfully crazy” and wondering, “How did I get back home?”

When he entered the party he remembers, “There were over 200 people crammed inside a frat house to the point where people were standing back to back.” If people doubt UCI’s partying abilities, they should take into account that this party had “roughly 8 one liter bottles of Captain Morgan, 6 more handles of various vodka and hundreds of empty Dixie cups scattered all over the kitchen.” Some may think that UCI students nod off to sleep, buried in their biology books on Friday nights, when actually the chant, “SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS!” can be heard echoing through Arroyo Drive. UCI may be commonly known for its friendly kickbacks, but the cops are still busy regulating our parties.

Although UCSB students may boast of their secure party network in Isla Vista and UCLA guarantees

those frat parties you see in the movies every Thursday, where’s the variety, where’s the thrill of the pursuit? UCI offers various scenes to encounter different people, from frat guys to the Bio majors, to the, “Hey, do you even go to UCI?” It’s just about who you know and, as Adrian Ortiz phrases it, “Expanding your network.” So, please, I encourage all UCI students to just put in a little more effort to make connections and find that friend who always knows where the party is, or willing to go crash a party. Peak party hours are roughly from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. so save that homework until tomorrow because you’ll want to reminisce over all the people you bonded with during your college years rather than all those wonderful essays you have had the privilege of writing. It’s so rewarding when you get that text from an unknown number saying, “Last night was awesome, you have to come to my friend’s party next weekend!” Now put down those books and put on your party pants. I’ve been from Santa Barbara to San Diego, but I choose to party here in Irvine. So I extend my invitation to college students far and wide to come party with us because Anteaters play just as hard as they work.

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Composition

“My hidden talent would be, I guess, being a lesbian,” quips a female voice from the back of the room, the person the voice belongs to is hidden behind the people sitting in front of her.

“Which means you can do what really well?” jokingly, suggestively, asks another girl to the amusement of everyone in the room.

Amid the laughs, Anabelle, who has been directing tonight’s meeting, yells out “This is not a dating service people!”

No, this is not a dating service, it is Irvine Queers. Irvine Queers, or IQ as its members call it, is a club which caters to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and ally students of UCI. According to one of their pamphlets, the aim of IQ is “to provide a safe space for queer and ally students, education about queer issues, and opportunities for political participation.” Irvine Queers holds weekly meetings. These meetings are “a mixture of social, educational, and political activities.” On the agenda for tonight’s meeting? Project Rungay.

Three judges sit at the front of the room and give the group the task: design an outfit with newspapers and flyers. The groups are given tape, several copies of the New University, and flyers, some of which announce the OMG (Oh My Gender): a Drag Show event while others advertise the Queer Culture Festival. I am in the six-person group; we have chosen our model and proceed to dress him up. Turns out we are not a very coherent group: someone put a skirt on him; someone else put a peacock tail while I added epaulets and a long braided tail. Someone else puts two cones on his chest and we all laugh at his new, big, pointy boobs. Anabelle makes a pharaoh style headdress, complete with a snake rising from it. She crowns our model with it.

“What was that Egyptian queen’s name?” asks Anabelle “Cleopatra?”

“Yes! You are Queerpatra!” Anabelle tells the model.

Anabelle Vo is a second-year undergraduate student at UCI and the Social Chair of Irvine Queers. As social chair, Anabelle gives herself the task of “mak[ing] everyone feel welcome when they first step foot inside IQ.” The time for creating the outfits is up, now the judges will evaluate our impromptu designs. The two models are standing next to each other ready to walk on the runway, which in this case is the open space in the middle of the room. The other group’s model goes first. He is wearing a dress made out entirely of OMG: A Drag Show posters that looks nothing at all like an impromptu dress. In fact “thought-out” would be the best word to describe it. To make matters more worrisome for our team, the model can walk! He walks up to the judges and back with as much style as Tyra Banks. His name is Chris; he is a fourth year undergraduate student and has been in Irvine Queers for almost two years. For him, IQ is a place that, particularly in a time when he was coming out, “help[ed] [him] be more comfortable with being gay.” Indeed, this comfort he has with himself is so palpable in him; he is standing there, wearing a paper dress that has been taped together over his bare torso and purple jeans, and he looks regal.

For a moment I think that I would want to wear the dress he is wearing. So, he is a good model through and through: he has the walk, and he sells.

He can also work and audience. Chris was one of the performers in the OMG: A Drag Show that was put up by IQ on May 13th. The drag show took place in HIB 100. The hall seats three-hundred and forty five; the

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I Feel Pretty, and Witty, and…Queer:

UCI’s Irvine Queers

By Rosa Vargas

night of the drag show about two thirds of the seats were filled. I overheard one of the performers and IQ member say that they weren’t expecting so many people. Chris performed twice in the Drag Show.

Anabelle also performed in the show. She did a number in which she was in drag, wearing baggy jeans, a hoodie, and a baseball cap in the fashion of any MTV worthy rapper. After her rap, while the next performers were readying themselves, Anabelle appeared back on stage wearing a pink dress, her painted on mustache and beard still on her face. She walked about and twirled around as she sang out acapella “I feel pretty, I feel pretty and witty and…queer,” people laughed and clapped and cheered, “and I pity any girl who isn’t me this year.”

The rest of the show continued on, keeping its fun spirit. By the end however, the mood became serious. A slideshow showing names and dates of individuals who had been victimized for being transgender flashed on the screen. One of the performers reminds the audience that the profits from the night’s donations will be used to help the medical bill of a trans male student in California State University Long Beach who was attacked in a campus bathroom on April 15th , his attacker had carved the word “it” on his chest. The victim had been hospitalized. However he didn’t have medical insurance and now had to pay the bill; the audience’s donations would help him pay.

This mixture of fun and seriousness of the Drag Show attests to the broad area that Irvine Queers encompasses as a club. “There’s not necessarily like a ton of groups [at UCI]. Like some schools that have […] larger involvement and bigger queer populations […] will have like really active groups; will have a political group, will have like an ally-focused group, will have the social group, you know […] IQ has tried to fulfill all of those things as best they can,” stated Emily Steelhammer, a fourth

year student and Chair of the Board of IQ. However, Emily also declared that in IQ there is definitely a focus on being a social group, “it usually comes down to initially things social because that’s what brings people in and that’s the number one thing that people who know they are LGBT and are ready to be in the community need.

They need the opportunity to be social.” Emily knows of this need to be social from personal experience. “I knew that if I was going to be […] gay, if I was going to be in the LGBT community, I had to go and be in the LGBT community.”

Back at Project Rungay, it is our model’s turn to walk the runway. He moves slowly, the epaulets and his headdress could come off if his movements are too sudden, and the skirt could rip if his stride is too wide. He manages to strike a pose once he is directly in front of the judges. Our group tells them of Queerpatra, and that we aimed for an outfit that would show multiculturalism and was Lady Gaga inspired. Judging from their faces, the judges aren’t buying it. They deliberate, they arrive at a decision, and they call the models forth. It was a hard decision, they say, but the other team wins. Everybody in the room claps. We are not disappointed that we lost, we had fun. Anabelle has made a halo out of newspaper pages, she takes one of the cones that would have been our model’s right boob had it been bigger and attaches it to her halo. She puts the concoction on her head, “I’m a unicorn!” She trots around, laughing, “I’m a unicorn!”

Yet Irvine Queers is not just a social place. “Not just socializing for the sake of socializing. But people who share the same interests, wanna fight for the same rights and, yes, emotional support. So, that’s what I treasure the most about this club,” said Anabelle. “There are people here who are just good people, it’s nice to get to know them […] it’s an entire community that you never thought you would get.”

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COMPOSITION

The Mixed Student Organization

By Lori Ke

“With the creation of the concept of “race” came an added category of isolation and separation; people weren’t allowed to cross the racial boundaries set up by their society,”

T

Courtey of Mixed Student Organization

he Mixed Student Organization allows students of multiracial and multiethnic backgrounds to come together and form connections while discussing what it means to be multiracial in the world today. “Whether students are multiracial themselves, have experienced a multicultural society, or are simply interested in the community, we welcome people from all backgrounds to come hang out with us,” said MSO Co-President Bryan Lee. The organization began in the year 1997 where it was originally named Hapa Issues Forum. It provided a place for students to engage in discussions of various issues involved in the mixed race community. One event involved a multi-campus campaign that allowed people of mixed backgrounds to check more than one box on forms and applications. The club has proudly evolved into the Mixed Student Organization in fall of 2007 where anyone is allowed to participate.

One may say that the club defies cultural categorization because it doesn’t adhere to one specific culture. The fact that MSO does not cater to one type of ethnicity allows members to not be limited or categorized to one race such as the Asian American Association, Japanese American Club, or the Russian Club. Most of the current members of MSO are first generation HAPA. For those that don’t know the meaning of HAPA, it’s a general term used to classify individuals who are of part Asian and Caucasian descent. “We all not only share this one facet of who we are that separates us from everyone else but there are incredibly few of us who are anything like anyone else in the club. Everyone has their own experience, their own mix and, ultimately, their own perspective,” Social Chair Kevin Herman adds.

There was a time when it was considered unlawful to marry and have sexual relations with someone of another race in the United States. “With the creation of the concept of “race” came an added category of isolation and separation; people weren’t allowed to cross the racial boundaries set up by their society,” said Vice President Farley Hamada. Many of the issues involved with people of mixed races are associated with laws and regulations that related to the Loving vs.

Virginia court case. In 1967, the case was overruled when the court found Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute (banning interracial marriage/relationships) to be unconstitutional. Moreover, this similar issue is evident in wars, such as the Vietnam War. There were an abundance of American soldiers who developed sexual relations with Vietnamese women. As a result of a large population of mixed children, these children were rejected from Vietnamese society due to the fact that they symbolized the “American enemy.” In addition, they were not wanted by most of the American soldiers since many of them had families of their own back home.

MSO is designed to increase awareness of the mixed race community. People often use the terms race and ethnicity without really knowing the difference between the two.

Race involves biological features. It can include skin color, eye color, and hair color. Ethnicity relates to traditions, customs, and learned behavior of a region. The club deals with identity issues for people struggling to find a balance. They also dig into political aspects including laws that deal with what is considered legal, cases such as Loving vs. Virginia, and the voting census. Health issues are also covered. For example, it is hard for people who are mixed to find a match for bone marrow.

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The club has also co-hosted events with various cultural and interest organizations on campus, including Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression) with Uncultivated Rabbits, which is UCI’s first spoken word organization where students can express themselves through the written and spoken word. Project VOICE features two multiracial spoken word artists, Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye who are both half Japanese and half Jewish. It is a national movement that inspires young people to express themselves through Spoken Word Poetry.

The club additionally engages in Cross Cultural outreach events with the Cross where they attend Cross events and meetings as well as other club events to offer support.

MSO attends conferences geared toward the Mixed Community, where Stanford and Berkeley are the two main campuses. The term Mixed Community generally refers to people of multiracial, multi-ethnic backgrounds. CoPresident Pamela Crouch commented, “Our approach to outreach is basically that our existence as a club is to provide a service to fellow multiracial students. Our service is to educate, and provide a sense of community to individuals who have something in common with each other as well as maybe having many similar experiences.”

MSO also has a range of other social activities including culture nights, dinners, holiday celebrations, dancing nights, a winter retreat in Big Bear, a spring camping retreat, and more.

Not only is this organization a wonderful way for students to socialize and learn from the meetings, but they will create strong friendships that last throughout their college years and beyond.

The Importance of Poetry in the Classroom Little baby dove You’ll never leave my heart Pecking your little ball Chasing it as if you were a dog Go to sleep And goodnight - Karina Jimenez

By Holly Slidders

small groups led by a UCI student. The Academy also enables undergraduate students to volunteer to teach poetry at El Sol once a week.

“There is a group of students who collaborate together through the encouragement of Sue Cronmiller, the UCI Poetry Academy Director, to lead workshops, analyze poems with the students and lead group discussions at a bilingual school in Santa Ana”, explains Carly Miller, a fourth year English major who is the program’s Recruitment Manager. The UCI Poetry Academy was developed in 2002 by Sue Cronmiller and Kathy Sabine. The academy is a sector of the Humanities Out There (HOT) program where UCI undergraduate students can gain skills in teaching and mentoring elementary students in the classroom. The academy is funded through grants, money from Student Affairs, and through UC Links.

T

he author of this poem is not Walt Whitman or Pablo Neruda or e.e. cummings or Robert Frost. The author of this poem is Karina Jimenez and she is thirteen years old. The poem is not layered with grandiose adjectives nor is the poem in a specified meter, but this poem conveys an emotion like any famous poem ever published. This poem was not an easy piece for Karina to write. She laughed through her wet tears when she talked about her memory of her dove – how her dove was more like a dog than a bird. Karina expressed an emotion that day. She conveyed her sadness both through the words that she wrote and through the lines of her poem that she read to her class.

Karina Jimenez is a student at the El Sol Santa Ana Science and Arts Academy and she was a part of the UCI Poetry Academy in Spring 2010. The program is an enriching experience for both UCI students and for the El Sol students.

This academy provides an opportunity for the El Sol students to write poems in

Due to budget cuts, the academy is hanging on by a thread, but Sue Cronmiller says, “The real success is that El Sol is still going and achievements are being made every Friday when our El Sol students have the opportunity to write.”

El Sol Academy is a bilingual charter school where many of the students do not own a computer. The sounds of whistles and bells to initiate the school day in

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COMPOSITION

the morning are the same as at any other school, but the children do not walk to classrooms made of concrete and wood. Their classrooms are portables, one lined up after another and the asphalt playground is no bigger than two basketball courts. These students may not have everything, but they are lucky to be attending a unique school like El Sol Academy. In a time when arts programs at schools are limited or even negated, El Sol still allows the students to learn about an art such as poetry.

Carly Miller explained, “The focus of the program is creative writing, where the students can let themselves be creative. There is so much talent out there that is not funneled.”

“I think every kid should have this,” added Sue Cronmiller when asked about the importance of this program in the schools.

Every kid should have an opportunity to express himself or herself, but in a time where California Standardized test scores determine school funding and jobs, creative writing does not carry the importance it should. Willard Intermediate School is a school in Santa Ana that does not have a program like the UCI Poetry Academy. English grammar and mathematics

were treated as the most important subjects to teach at Willard, but after seeing El Sol be acknowledged as a California Distinguished School and the success of El Sol’s STAR test scores, Willard has decided to use El Sol as a model to implement arts in the classroom.

Due to budget cuts, the UCI Poetry Academy is one of the last active sectors in the Humanities Out There (HOT) program at UCI. Miller stated that it is “a shame that there is a possibility the HOT program might be cut because HOT brings a student perspective to the classroom when the children normally only see adults. The student volunteer acts as a mentor for the students at El Sol because they know that at one time the UCI students were dealing with the same worries about high school and friendships that the El Sol students may be dealing with now.”

Meg Mardian, a student volunteer, explained, “I really hope this program keeps going. I found it really fulfilling. You forget that even little kids are going through really big stuff. The experience pulls you down to earth.”

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When asked about a student’s experience that stuck out to her, Mardian recounted the day when she worked with Jennifer Perez on a personal poem about a cousin who did drugs. “We tried to use a metaphor of a ship for Jennifer’s cousin. Her poem expressed images of the ship going down and Jennifer searching through the wreckage. You could tell she was really upset about sharing a story like that, but I wanted to help her get those feelings on paper,” Mardian recounted.

Cronmiller explained, “Through their poems, the El Sol students get to know themselves better. They have the opportunity to realize the power of their imaginations.”

The UCI Academy is therefore not only a place for an exchange of ideas about poetry, but it is also ground for a transferal of trust and respect and an ideal place for the El Sol students to be creative. The student volunteers can develop their practical skills of teaching and leading discussions in the classroom and the El Sol students are free to have an hour where they can learn about imagery, symbolism and meter and where they can write their own poems and express who they are on paper.

By Alexis Hodoyán-Gastélum Picture a scene where models strut down a long runway wearing unique pieces carefully constructed by student designers, rows and rows of spectators watching the show in awe and even a couple of photographers capturing every moment. Where are we? FIDM? Parsons? If you’ve been an anteater in the last three years you would know that the Fashion Interest Group’s Fashion Show is one of UCI’s most coveted events of the year.

Models, however, don’t get into the show as easily. FIG usually holds more than one casting in the spring quarter where guys and girls aspiring to participate give their photos and measurements to the designers and show them their best strut. From that point onward it’s “what the designer wants”, as Lao puts it. Designers choose their models based on these castings. Models must be students at UCI as well.

Louise Lao, a fourth year Literary Journalism and Art History double major, is FIG’s Director of Design and a designer as well. She was one of nine student designers who showcased their collections back in May. Lao in her then newly attained position required designers to put together six looks for the show. With no official audition or portfolio required, your UCI I.D. card guarantees you a spot in the fashion show.

Typically held in week nine of the spring quarter, just before finals madness, the FIG Fashion Show allows student designers to work on their collections throughout the academic year. “I want people to start as early as possible”, Lao said, “I want people to know more about it in the fall, but realistically, people probably start in winter quarter, actually making their lines and designing them.” She emphasizes the importance of leaving enough time for

Photographed by Michelle S. Kim/ UC Irvine’s Fashion Interest Group & Graphic Illusration by Patricia Liu

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fittings and corrections and even styling before the actual show.

Conscious of the living expenses of the students, FIG has had a few fundraisers, such as bake sales, to raise money for the designers for the first time last year. “It’s basically just for the designers to use on supplies and fabric, because it can get very expensive”, Lao said.

Designers are free to make their collections for any season of their liking. “Because we live in such a weird climate”, Lao said, “A lot of the time it’s things people can wear in any season because we live in Orange County.” She also adds that designers generally like to design fall lines to get “as close to real world” as possible.

Last quarter’s fashion show was Lao’s third time exhibiting her work to the UCI audience. She described her aesthetic as “the reflection of my own self, what I like to wear currently.”

“I’m definitely not a girly designer, but I feel like a lot of my clothes are body conscious”, she later said. Lao showed up to our Starbuck’s interview wearing high waisted ripped navy shorts to which she added a handful of safety pins and spray painted them. The shorts were actually part of her last season’s collection. Lao explained how she likes vintage clothing, to construct and de-construct clothing, and how she didn’t actually make the shorts but did an “Urban Renewal” type of thing on them.“[T] hat’s another thing” she added, “it’s not required to do everything from scratch [for the show].”

As for hair and make-up, designers are given the freedom to bring in their own stylists to the show, who don’t necessarily need to be UCI students. “Everyone’s pretty much at that point in charge of their own show, of what goes on and make sure it goes smoothly”, Lao said.

Admission into the FIG Fashion Show is always free, but V.I.P. tickets are also available for purchase. V.I.P. tickets include guaranteed seating in the first few rows, access to backstage, free food and even a gift bag. Last year, sponsors such as BCBGeneration and Charlotte Russe donated jewelry for the gift bags.

The money raised from the tickets goes to charity.

Some of the organizations cashing in on the money raised from the FIG Fashion Show are different sororities and fraternities who participate and win the “Greek Walk-off.” Representatives of the different sororities and fraternities give their best strut down the runway and whoever gets the most adulation from the audience gets a donation to their philanthropy.

Photosgraphed by Michelle S. Kim/UC Irvine’s Fashion Interest Group

With each year, the FIG Fashion Show gets bigger and better.

Aside from the fashion show itself and the Greek Walk-off, a UCI dance group and DJ always perform. FIG rents out the entire Pacific Ballroom in the Student Center filling it out completely, having people sitting on the chairs, on the floors and standing by the walls. “You could say that it’s probably a fire hazard!” Lao jokes.

On the experience of having her collection shown before hundreds of people, Lao comments, “It’s really a crazy feeling to see the clothes you make on other people … You see them when you’re making them and you spend so much time on every piece like it’s your baby, then to see [your clothes] all of a sudden on a model … walking down the runway… it’s a very surreal experience.”

“People are always impressed like, ‘Oh I didn’t know that people from UCI were interested in fashion’ because it’s a UC. The general conception of any UC or public school [is that] it has nothing to do with fashion, but there’s definitely a thriving community of people who are interested in it,” Lao said. FIG has over 400 members on their Facebook page.

Students who chose to skip art school have found an outlet to express themselves through fashion at a university with no offered majors in said field. The FIG Fashion Show gives designers the opportunity to showcase their talent each year, an opportunity that wouldn’t come as easily otherwise. Lao shares her experience and comments how FIG has helped her and other students who “are just not sure what they want to do and they’re at UCI trying to find out what they’re interested in.”

“I’m hoping to prove to the people who think that fashion school is vital to have a career in fashion wrong. I’m trying to be successful without necessarily subscribing to one career choice, like Rachel Zoë went to George Washington University and she double majored in Psychology and Sociology and now she’s like a huge stylist and she has her own T.V. show,” Lao said.

As for now, members from FIG are beginning to plan the fashion show for the spring 2011 quarter. Lao has already been approached by student designers hoping to get a chance to show their designs. Lao concludes, “I encourage people to go, but more importantly, I encourage people to actually be a part of it … Of course you need to be a member of FIG to be in the show, but you can still join now.”

PERSPECTIVE

Eating Disorders: The Fight to Prevent Them

By Priyanka Saigal

I was driving down the bustling freeway one afternoon when I saw it.

In front of me, I uneasily peered at the grim, towering billboard with the massive, bold words “Breast Augmentation: $2995” written across its jagged surface. In addition to the prominent letters, the advertisement used a provocative image of an attractive, young woman as an ominous, captivating power that forced drivers to stare at its atrociousness. It was a monster that hypnotized drivers and brainwashed their minds into believing that enlarging one’s breasts was in fact the simple solution to finding contentment in life.

The contemptible messages being sent by such tactless advertisements are encouraging self-deprecation. There seems to be no escape from the haunting images that the media is pouring into our malleable minds.

If you flip through a popular women’s magazine, you will find pictures of tall, emaciated, ninety pound models flaunting the newest fashions. In a well-known men’s magazine, you will likely stumble upon advertisements featuring brawny men with fake tanned, steroid-enhanced bodies flexing their gargantuan muscles. These unhealthy models and bodybuilders spotlighted in magazines serve as the prototype of what the perfect body should resemble. The media tries to convince its consumers that potentially-fatal diet pills, exorbitantly-priced plastic surgery operations, and misleading fat-free foods will help them acquire the unattainable body types that they should all idolize. The media is breeding on the insecurities of its consumers. Their money making schemes and extreme covetousness are causing their consumers to become mentally ill.

According to the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, approximately 24 million Americans and 70 million individuals around the world suffer from an eating disorder. In addition, “at least 50,000 individuals will die as a direct result of an eating disorder.” The symptoms that transpire as a result of the development of an eating disorder include dizziness or fainting, loss of menstruation in girls and women, dry skin, abdominal pain, low blood pressure, dehydration, fear of gaining weight, low self esteem, and social withdrawal. Evidently, the prevalence of eating disorders is a threat to the health and quality of life for individuals around the world.

College students, who must deal with intense competition in school, the transition to a fast-paced, independent lifestyle, and extreme pressures from parents and peers, often develop eating disorders. The extreme stresses of college life cause anxious-ridden students to resort to overeating, dieting, and purging. In addition, the media’s promotion of an unhealthy, unrealistic body type makes it difficult for college students to be acceptant of their own body type. In a 2006 poll conducted by the National Eating Disorders Association on college campuses across the nation, 57.3 percent of students surveyed believed that cultural pressures to be thin were the main factor contributing to the onset of eating disorders.

As an increasing number of people become more knowledgeable about the extreme dangers of eating disorders, numerous organizations are being established throughout the nation such as the National Eating Disorder Association and the Academy for Eating Disorders. These groups provide valuable information and resources about eating disorders, host nationwide activities and conduct research to find new, innovative solutions to the burgeoning problem. The crusade to eradicate the existence of eating disorders has now become a global mission. In Israel, the government endorsed a bill prohibiting the employment of underweight models. As a result of the bill, it is mandatory for models to present a medical permit specifying their body mass index, and heavy fines will ensue if the new law is violated in any way. In addition, Spain passed a law that prohibited the airing of television advertisements, before ten ‘o’clock in the evening, endorsing beauty products and treatments that advocated surgical or chemical methods to attain an ideal body. These types of advertisements were banned since they were seen as a potential cause for the onset of eating disorders among younger crowds.

UC Irvine is undertaking vital measures to ensure that college students and staff on campus are aware of the existence and severity of eating disorders. There are also a number of resources on campus that students are encouraged to utilize.

The Counseling Center, Student Health Center, and Health Education Center offer assistance to students who are afflicted by an eating disorder or any similar body-image related problems.

IMAGE, which stands for Image Management Awareness Growth and Education, is a club on the UC Irvine campus that raises awareness about eating disorders and helps promote a positive self image.

For several years, IMAGE has actively participated in the National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (NEDAW). During this important week in February, a number of events and activities take place throughout the campus in order to help people gain an understanding about the dangers of eating disorders and how they can be prevented.

Students and staff on campus are able to view large displays on Ring Road that feature intriguing facts and fascinating images pertaining to eating disorders. In addition, IMAGE also holds the charity event known as the Great Jeans Giveaway which encourages people to embrace their “genes” and love their bodies by donating old pairs of jeans to charity.

In this cutthroat world where we view others as a threat to the attainment of our success, we relentlessly strive to perfect ourselves in order to endure the competition, even if we denigrate ourselves in the process.

However, the increasing prevalence of eating disorders is a clear indication that surrendering our self-worth is detrimental to our health. Learning to accept ourselves for our positive attributes is efficacious in allowing us to achieve of our goals and happiness.

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PERSPECTIVE

Recovering The Emptiness

By Florence Ng

W

orking in a room filled with people in spandex shorts, muscle tees, and sport bras make for an obvious body-conscious environment. The atmosphere of a gym striving for bodily perfection may seem like a hazardous environment for someone with an eating disorder history. In her case, however, 21-year-old Kaitlyn Moore, does not believe this to be true.

Moore, a former patient of The Bella Vita, a treatment center for individuals suffering from eating disorders, dealt with her own experience of eating struggles where her internal struggle did not necessarily match her external. This was most prevalent early on in her eating disorder when Moore was engrossed in the bulimic habits of binging and purging. Unlike the anorexic, whose pain is likely visible by a malnutritioned exterior, Moore felt she appeared normal on the outside because she was not underweight. Inside, however, her mentality was obsessive and destructive.

“Being bulimic at first was so confusing for me because I felt completely hollow and empty on the inside, but on the outside I looked healthy and decent even though I was throwing up most of my meals,” said Moore.

Instead of this confusion preventing Moore’s eating disorder from escalating any further, Moore instead became intent on becoming anorexic.

“I guess I just wanted to look as sick as I felt,” said Moore. “Even though I didn’t necessarily want the help or all the attention, I wanted someone to at least notice my pain.”

Luckily for Moore, someone did notice. Seeing their daughter’s health decline, Moore’s parents, based in Portland, Oregon, encouraged her to seek treatment for an eating disorder while she was attending college in California. In September of 2008, as a freshman at Azusa Pacific University, Moore checked into The Bella Vita in Pasadena, California.

“When I first entered treatment I honestly did it just because my parents gave me the choice to either stay in California and get help, or move back home to

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Oregon,” said Moore. “At the time, I was still in denial that my eating disorder was serious, and I didn’t want to be home because at home I could not restrict or binge and purge.”

Though she was reluctant to address her disordered eating, Moore realized that living life with an eating disorder was no life at all.

“My eating disorder stole everything from me,” said Moore. “It ruined every relationship I had, destroyed my health, and made me want to die. I had to rebuild every aspect of my life once I chose recovery.”

This required Moore to try to remember her life before her eating disorder, which challenged her to live without her destruction behavior.

“My eating disorder had made every aspect of life difficult for me, from walking up the stairs to going to get the mail,” said Moore. “I had to structure my days around food because I had to make sure I was in a safe place where no one would notice my binging and purging.”

Moore’s first few weeks of her three month stay at The Bella Vita felt to her as if she were, “in another world”. “It was so weird to be in a place where they fully addressed all the behaviors and problems that I was trying to hide,” said Moore.

“At first, I lied a lot to the therapists and treatment team about not restricting or purging when I was at home in my apartment.”

After Moore developed a sense of trust with her therapists and other Bella Vita staff members, she became more receptive to the idea of recovery.

“At the Bella Vita, I fell into a safety net with the staff and starting trusting everyone around me because I felt like they understood my problems and my situation,” said Moore. “The only problem with that was the real world outside of treatment [...] the two are completely different.”

A year after her release from The Bella Vita, Moore felt compelled to work in an environment that dealt with body issues so that she could help others struggling

with similar problems. Fitness had also played a role in Moore’s life before her eating disorder treatment—thus bringing her back to a familiar ground.

“There have been several drastically different seasons in my life, and I have experienced both negative and positive aspects of fitness,” said Moore. “When I was actively involved in my eating disorder, fitness played a very negative role. I was at the gym for hours at a time, multiple times a day, and eating very little. In recovery, however, I feel good after working out instead of incredibly fatigued, and it improves my quality of life.”

Moore began working at Bally’s front desk and as an active volunteer in their teen center where groups of girls talked about their reasons for exercise along with various body issues. Two months into her job, Moore decided to study to become a certified fitness trainer to become more actively involved in a one-onone interaction with others at the gym.

“One of the main reasons that I want to be a personal trainer is so I could possibly encounter some people who struggle with eating issues and help them approach a healthier and more satisfying way of life,” said Moore. “It is difficult though, because sometimes I find myself becoming centered on appearance. Luckily, I’m usually able to catch myself and remind myself why I’m striving for this specific career: to help other people.”

Moore’s route post-treatment is similar to that of Bella Vita’s head treatment team therapist and executive director, Dr. Patricia Pitts, who in 1985 established the Bella Vita Treatment Center. In her teenage and young adult years, Pitts struggled with her own eating disorder issues. After receiving treatment and implementing tools of recovery into her own life, Pitts went on to receive a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, a licensure as a clinical psychologist, and a masters in Theology from Fuller Seminary. Pitts is also a licensed marriage, family, and child counselor.

As a highly recognized individual in her field, Pitts was chosen as the Eating Disorder specialist of the year in 1999 and named the recipient of The National Program of the Year by CPC Psychiatric hospitals. Since then, Pitts has made appearances on Extra, CBS, KCAL9, and MSNBC addressing the importance of inpatient and outpatient programs in eating disorder recovery.

“At The Bella vita, our programs are designed to address more than just the eating disorder symptoms of anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating,” said Pitts. “We help you discover how to deal with the inner feelings and emotions that trigger emotional susceptibility and offer effective coping skills to diminish behaviors. For each patient, these underlying issues may be complicated by other disorders that diminish the quality of life. So, we clinically diagnose, you, the individual and not just your symptoms or condition. The healing then begins from within.”

21-year-old Ashleigh Davis, who was a patient at The Bella Vita during at the same time as Moore, became victim to her own obsessive routine that focused around her eating habits.

“Everyday I would wake up with obsessive thoughts immediately planning out my day and what I should eat, should not eat, and when I could fit in a workout,” Davis said. “Once I was able to get out of bed I would go through the day obsessively counting calories, restricting, and checking my body constantly for fat.”

Davis’s eating disorder began as competitiveness in her junior year in high school when she started to compare her developing body with everyone from her friends and soccer teammates to girls in magazines. By her junior year of high school, Davis was exercising obsessively every day determined to reach her own “ideal”

of what she wanted to look like.

“For over a year before I started treatment I was restricting terribly and exercising excessively,” said Davis. “I had a rigid idea of “good” and “bad” foods. I would cut down to 900 calories if I exercised that day and less if I didn’t. I kept a food journal and wrote down everything I put in my mouth down to sips of beverages.

After that, I would calculate the number of calories I had taken in obsessively.

Then I would re-calculate just so I could see the number over and over--I felt so uncontrollable.”

By February of her freshman year in college at Azusa Pacific University, Davis had lost an additional twelve pounds, along with the rational voice in her head. Naturally, with the weight loss, she began to feel the physical effects of her disorder.

Davis started to loose her hair in chunks, was constantly cold and moody, and developed a core low self esteem and self hatred. Overcome with confusion and anxiety, Davis began to see a counselor at APU. From there, she was recommended to be admitted into the intensive outpatient clinic at The Bella Vita.

“I was terrified on my first day of treatment. At first, my eating disorder mind started to compare my body with each of the other girls that were there to judge who was the “sickest”,“ said Davis. “My mind would form some kind of sick competition of who was the most anorexic person in treatment. It was like I always had to win.”

Instead of succumbing to these thoughts, Davis fought them off and was able to develop trusting relationships with her therapists and other Bella Vita patients.

After two months of treatment, Davis was released at a healthy weight. Once out, however, she continued to struggle with integrating the world of treatment she had become used to with the real world.

“Sometimes treatment can give you a false sense of recovery,” said Davis. “Even though the program may be successful in giving you tools and different ways to handle problems without engaging in your eating disorder, it is so much more difficult in real life. While in treatment, it is much easier to stop those behaviors because of the constant support. Once you’re out, though, it is much harder-and relapse is just a lot easier.”

Now, both 21-years-old and out of treatment for two years, Moore and Davis sit side by side at Starbucks, cheery-cheeked, smiling, and laughing as they reminisce about their time spent at The Bella Vita. Both girls hold cups of Splendasweetened coffee and lit cigarettes. Since treatment Moore has moved back to her parents’ home in Oregon, but is in California for part of the summer to visit friends. After attempting to finish her B.A. at a Community College in Oregon, Moore fell off track after an unfortunate D.U.I. for drunk driving.

“Unfortunately there are some days where I have to be either high or drunk in order to eat three decent meals a day with snacks and not purge anything,” said Moore.

Similarly, Davis also struggled on and off after her Bella Vita stay to maintain a healthy weight and fight off the pressure to relapse. This became easier when she decided to study abroad for five months in New Zealand.

“I have a hard time thinking that someone can be completely recovered,” said Davis. “I don’t think there is such a thing. It’s not an all or nothing recovery. The eating disorder thoughts will probably never leave, but it’s about not listening or believing those thoughts. I think one of the first steps to recovery is realizing that your eating disorder is not who you are.”

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PORTRAIT

something about Kyle

By Carly Lanning The first time I met Kyle was in Spanish 1C during my sophomore year. To me, Kyle seemed like any other average student going to UC Irvine except for the fact that he seemed genuinely happy at 8 am. To me, this is far from normal and far from anything I was at 8 am. He seemed to be the only one who smiled, laughed and joked through the early mornings of Español. And at 10 am nothing was different. During English, when we all struggled to find biblical allusions through the Heart of Darkness, Kyle continued to be upbeat. At first, I thought nothing of it but as time went on, it seemed somehow his happiness and general passion for life was infectious. There was just something about Kyle Lambky.

As I came to learn, there are many somethings about Kyle Lambky. He is 22 years old and an English major at UC Irvine. He has an older sister who was just married this summer, has a knack for charades in Spanish, played on the defensive line in football, has completed Px90 a total of three times and finishes his essays weeks ahead of the due date. But the thing that sets Kyle apart from you and me, the thing that makes Kyle something different, is that his happiness has persevered through the loss of his mother to breast cancer in 2008 and has spurred him to start his own cancer organization called Sailing for a Cure.

“My mom and I were extremely close,” Kyle said, “She was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in my second week coming into high school. They gave her two years to live but she fought for 6 which is incredible.

Many people lose their parents in an accident, or they come home and find something happened, but at least I got to come home and be with my mom for that time. That is something that I will never take for granted.” Thanking his mom for pushing him in the right direction and always being his safety net throughout life, he looks forward to pursuing a career in screen writing or acting. For him, it is all about making a positive connection with people and through writing, he sees the opportunity to touch the largest audiences. “Something that I won’t take for

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PORTRAIT

Photos courtesy of Kyle Lambky

“You don’t really know what is going to happen but you still continue through life, keep going, carry on with as much positivity as possible,” granted and that has given me a lot of peace throughout the hard times is that I got to say goodbye to my mom in the hospital. They say that the last thing to go before you die is your sense of hearing, so I started talking to her and telling her how much I loved her. I know that she heard it, and when I lifted up my head from praying I noticed she was gone. It was the most peaceful way that someone could go and that is something I am so thankful for.”

Through the hardships of losing his mom, Kyle saw a light at the end of the tunnel and worked through the difficult times with blind faith. “You don’t really know what is going to happen but you still continue through life, keep going, carry on with as much positivity as possible,” stated Kyle. Speaking to those in the same position with their families, positivity is the key along the path of recovery. There is a reassurance in Kyle’s voice as he describes, “I know from losing my mom it sounds so sad but there are so many positive things that have come from it. My life has changed so much in a better way, it is weird to say that, but there really is a light at the end of the tunnel when you are going through something as horrible as cancer is.” To remind himself of the continual love he feels for his family, Kyle has a tattoo of a lion on the

back of his right arm to represent his lion heart. “It was meant to represent courage and always looking out for the people I love in my life, my friends and family,” remarked Kyle. Turning to the love and support of friends and family following his mother’s death, Kyle, along with his sister and brother-inlaw, channeled his grief into founding their own cancer network, Sailing for the Cure.

Sailing for the Cure was started in the summer of 2008, months after the passing of Kyle’s mother. The motto of the group is “unification of the mind, body and soul,” and its purpose is to give cancer patients and their families a break from the troubles on land.

Families will be be taken out sailing to give them the power to endure and persevere through the mental battle they are facing with cancer. The idea of sailing was chosen by his sister because of her fascination with sailing and the ocean. With the body being composed of 60 percent water, it seemed a natural element to return patients to in order to assist in their cancer recovery.

After several fundraising events, Kyle hopes to take the first family out during December of this year. “I think we might go for a close friend that is going through cancer right now. She was one of my mom’s best friends and I can’t

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think of anyone better than someone who was close to my mom because this whole thing was inspired by my mom,” said Kyle. With two major fundraisers under his belt, ships lined up to be used and a few lessons of sailing conquered, Kyle seems unable to contain his excitement. “I am more excited right now than when we started doing it because this is what we have all been wanting to do, take that first family out, and we can finally almost do that now. You know when you start something and it seems just like a crazy dream but then when you start to see it happen you are like ‘Wow this is real, really happening. What I want to do for these people is actually going to come true,’” stated Kyle. With lofty dreams, this organization has become a reality through the planning and contribution of generous friends, families and strangers with the common goal to eliminate cancer.

To raise money for his organization, Kyle disregarded the common forms of fundraising and instead decided to draw attention to his organization through video game marathons. The first of these marathons took place in December 2009 where Kyle and 8 other friends spent 72 hours playing Mario games in his living room. Streaming live video feed throughout their three days of competition,

Kyle was shocked to find that people around the world had tuned into their program and continued to donate throughout the time the players battled. This first marathon raised 3,650 dollars and began spreading the word about Sailing for the Cure. “One of the messages we are sending is the fact that a lot of people play video games because they want to forget things and escape from life. But we are playing video games not to get away from life but to get closer to life,” emphasized Kyle. With their slogan, “Game over in the fight against cancer,” Kyle and his friends completed their second video game marathon this year, conquering the levels of Zelda. Supported by his best friends, Sailing for the Cure raised 4,590 dollars its second time around, although for Kyle this is just the beginning.

With a permanent smile painted across his face, Kyle Lambky continued to remind me, “Anyone can raise money, it is the fact that you are doing something. You never ever give up because things turn out alright, they can, and they will if you stay positive. I promise.”

And you know what? I believe him.

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By: Benjamin R. Bray

Creativity

I sat down in my chair. We got to pick our own seats, so as usual, I picked a seat in the back. I wasn’t avoiding a seat up front out of guilt or fear. I just liked the back because I could be ignored; my class had 35 kids in it with a near perfect attendance record (the truant officers around here are brutal).“Class, class, class, please,” that would be the most common phrase uttered by our teacher.

I always did my homework and I never fell behind in my reading assignments. I was never absent really, and if I was I did some kind of make-up work without even being asked to. In summary, I guess you could say I was almost a model student.

ics, druggies, and drop-outs got the majority of their members. It wasn’t hard for me to decide that that wasn’t for me.

I’m not anywhere near arrogant enough to make the claim that all attempts at success ended in complete failure. There were students who earned athletic scholarships and there were others who got into their dream schools with perfect or near perfect test scores, but the essential part of what made these success stories and those they were about special was the fact that they were rare. Yeah, I’ve never gambled; the house always wins.

So I made it through school and took my solo act to college. I used my tried and true strategy (which was far easier to implement when the student The reason I say almost is because my desire to be ignored motivated body was larger than the population of my entire home town) to make it me to avoid extracurricular activities. I wasn’t outspoken against them, through with a competitive GPA. I didn’t try for graduate school, because because that would just bring attention to me. I simply avoided ‘club day’ while my GPA was competitive, I wasn’t. Competition doesn’t exist in the and try-outs. I’d show up to school with just enough time to get to class, background. because no one was recruiting while they were rushing to class. I moved from class to class projecting this I-don’t-care aura; I kept my trips to class I went to interview after interview being as professional and completely quiet and quick this way. After school I would go way out of my way to exit impersonal as possible. I wanted to get hired according to what was on my the school out the back way. I had no friends, and that’s the way I liked it; resume, not how nice I was to talk to. I ended up getting the kind of job that it made it easier to avoid peer pressure, which was something I didn’t have thousands of people do every day for one company alone. the patience for.

Perfect.

So, by sitting in the back, bringing home the A’s, avoiding clubs and sports, I spent my days waking up, going to work, coming home, and then escaping and staying quiet and well behaved, I faded into the background. I liked it into my comic books which, at this point, had grown into quite the impresthere. There was no pressure, no distractions, and it gave me all the time I sive collection. needed to read my comics.

I didn’t have a lot of bills so I had a lot of extra cash to spend on comics. I Now I know comics normally go hand-in-hand with things like manga and didn’t pay for a cell phone, because when you don’t have friends, you don’t anime, video games, and other so called geeky stuff, but for me, it was just have people calling you or texting you for any and every stupid reason. Secomics. I would read these amazing stories about these amazing people riously, can you survive ten seconds without sending or receiving texts? I and I couldn’t get enough. My favorites were comics with teams, because can, and I’m actually very happy that being mindlessly social is not my hobby. these teams of heroes would always have members that didn’t really mat- I don’t have cable, but that’s just obvious. I mean, with the internet, who ter. These heroes literally acted as background. I hated these heroes. I needs commercials? I didn’t pay for internet. I had a computer, but I didn’t loved to see how the heroes up front would take charge, but I hated how connect it to the internet. I just used the internet at work to torrent stuff the background heroes followed without saying anything that could be con- straight to my laptop. I would go home later that night and back up the files sidered a significant, original thought. on my desktop. I lived in a studio because you don’t need a lot of room to live “You’re a super hero! You have freaking super powers, geeze! Stand up, in blissful solitude. So my rent was really cheap and shopping for enough to say something! You know what I would do if I were special? You know what feed one person is so easy when you buy wholesale. I really don’t get bored I would do if I didn’t belong in the background?” these thoughts came to me with repetitive cuisine. often while reading my comics.

I was happy, really I was. Practically every single person who reads this That’s why I loved those types of comics, because they helped me to imag- wouldn’t think so, but I was. There are things in life that not everybody ine how as a background hero I would become a leading hero, a super hero needs. There was one thing I needed though, and for the first time I truly felt dependent when I lost it. that counted.

I knew I wasn’t, nor would I ever be, someone special, but I didn’t want to be, My dreams, my imagination, my escape, that’s what I needed and comics not in the real world. Being special (if it can really be called that) in the real gave me my escape. Then I read my last comic. The author and illustrator did a really great job building up a background hero, pulling him to the main world is so temporary, so stressful for the wrong reasons. stage and then they gave him his big line.

I would watch my fellow students work so hard to be special, to stand out.

They would let their grades slip or they would quit the team or give up a “Yesterday is here today and tomorrow may never come. So, live for the club. Some would even try to do all three and that hardly ever went without present, learn from the past, and hope for the future.” some kind of aneurism. They would lie, cheat, and steal if they had to. There were even times when a student would break and that’s where the alcohol- That day, I stopped reading comics.

21 | incitemaguci.com | Fall/Winter 2010-11

UNBOUND

All Greek Men Have

Expiration Dates

Photo by Nina Rastegar

Greece, to me, has a culture of its own beyond the Olympian mythology.

By Spyro Glaretas

A

t their prime, Greek men are Apollo’s offspring, but by the time they hit 30 their looks lend them the same amount of credibility as a Euro-trashy car salesman. Pot-bellies, Gucci purpletinted glasses, and gold crosses buried in a nest of hairy ringlets on their chest are high style. Now picture a hot, Master Kraft glistening mess strained and stressed into a man-thong. This was my Greece and I loved it.

Greece, to me, has a culture of its own beyond the Olympian mythology. It has island culture where everyday was a beach day and every night is spent going to the tavern. It is an island block party where everyone is a neighbor. There is a sense of warmth and openness that only a life on a small island can bring. This openness is exactly what made the Speedo such a cultural standard on the Aegean beaches.

In Greece, learning how to swim meant wearing “swim briefs.” It was just the thing that Greek yayas made you wear. In an environment of island hominess where everyone knows each other, clothes didn’t really make the man; you were who you were, something foreign to Southern California natives.

With the guidance of yayas, the childhood speedo became a standard for all the island youth. When I went to Greece as a kid I could always tell who the American tourists were – they were the men embarrassed to show off their thighs. It was an American thing. In America, wearing board shorts is the cool thing. Our swim wear is decorated and patterned, but more than that it gives us a sense of security about not having to show off our legs.

Now, Greece is not what it used to be. Two summers ago, Greece was not the free living paradise that I remembered from growing up. All the island youths, 12 and up were wearing Roxy, Billabong, and Volcom, brands that began in Southern California and expanded with the growth of surf culture.

I traveled through two continents to end up back where I started: California. This is globalization at its purest.

With the adoption of the Euro in 2000 along with the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, Greece seems to have modernized at lightning speed.

Commerce expanded as Greece began catching up with the rest of first world Europe. With modernization came foreign investment which brought with it new markets. While this is good for Greece, it is undeniably a slow cultural assassination. Someone, somewhere, decided that the California culture of sun and sand could be profitable in Greece due to

their similar climates.

In my summer there, the only ones wearing Speedos were toddlers and my sister’s boyfriend Diego.

Diego is American and loves drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, so seeing him in a speedo was ironic.

Sociologist Theodore Levitt says in his essay, “The Globalization of Markets,” that “the world is flat.” For him this was something to celebrate because it was representative of the drive to a modern utopia as we as a global society began to shed our borders and differences as we were now able to buy the same product everywhere.

What bothers me about this theory is that I thought that the highest ideal for mankind would be a society in which differences were understood, accepted and celebrated. Levitt’s utopia is one where differences are smoothed over and blended until the borders between regional and cultural differences fade to black. We are becoming a homogenized people where our cultural differences are now commoditized instead of being passed down through tradition.

My Greek utopia was being able to experience a world so unlike my own but now that seems even less possible. Call me a stick in the mud, but I miss the fat guys in speedos.

Fall/Winter 2010-11 | incitemaguci.com | 22

A Taste of Turkey

By Ashley Brennan

C

ulture shock can occur anytime and anywhere.

As for me, it happened before bedtime.

As I tucked myself in with my soft blue blanket and a striped-floral comforter, I looked across the room at my roommate, Gamze Mercan, who sat near her desk typing away on her computer. Her desk was clean and minimalist with yellow post-its stuck onto the rim of the desk shelves and a miniature fan clamped onto the edge of her desk. On her desk shelf stood a petite circular mirror, a rosy perfume box entitled “Celébre”, a fragile snow globe of San Francisco and several family photos framed with neon pink and white picture frames.

Her eyes stared at the bright computer screen; she was probably preoccupied with schoolwork or Facebook. Her hands grasped a white bowl and inside were soft, shell-shaped pasta, sprinkled with tiny green shreds I didn’t recognize. The dish appeared both familiar, yet foreign at the same time. I asked Gamze what she was eating.

“It’s just pasta,” Gamze replied. “But I put some butter and mint in it”.

“You put mint on pasta?” I asked. This was strange to me.

“Yeah! My mom makes it that way. We tried to find some mint around here, but it was difficult to find. But we did find some. It is common in Turkey to put mint in pasta. Would you like to try some?”

Although I was a bit hesitant, I thought that a forkful of exotic pasta could not be too terrible, so why not?

“Sure,” I told her. “I’ll try some.”

“Okay,” she said with her lips curving into a smile.

Gamze put down the white bowl, got up from her seat, and strolled past her bed to her stainless steel Kenmore mini-fridge. On top, stood a transparent plastic box of kitchenware with a bright orange top.

She poured some of the pasta into my bowl and hands me the bowl of pasta.

Okay, here it goes, I thought. My right hand poked around the bowl, and I eventually scooped a forkful

Capellini by Jose Daniel Ruiz (Finger on Touchscreen)

of the exotic pasta into my mouth. My taste buds encounter the combination of flavors: a hint of butter and dashes of mint. The pasta proved to be more delicious than I expected. Who knew mint, butter, and pasta could taste so good?

While it was foreign to me, for Gamze, it was a taste of home. Home for her was thousands of miles away in the Turkish city of Ankara. Gamze. In Turkish it means “dimple” or “coral.” She traveled a long way several months ago to become a foreign exchange student at the University of California, Irvine. Before she became a foreign exchange student, she was a student at Bilkert University, studying to earn her degree in Business Administration, which she is also pursuing at UCI. Once she decided to become to participate in the foreign exchange program, Gamze had to be interviewed for her study abroad program, responding to numerous questions asked by the Dean of the university and several other professors.

Luckily, she was selected and got to attend her first choice: UCI. By September of this year, Gamze and her parents, Sûreyya and Ísmet, flew on an airplane to the city of angels.

Even though she has been here for several months, she has not been able to stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, or see Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.

Gamze thinks that Californians, believe it or not, are actually nice people. There are even some ways that California remind Gamze of her home country.

“When I first came here,” said Gamze. “I had to ask directions and learn how to go [to Irvine]. People I asked were always so polite and helpful. This made me feel like I was in Turkey. Since in my home country, people always do their best to help foreigners.”

For Gamze, the natives of the sunshine state of California may appear at times to resemble her Turkish country, but it does not mean she doesn’t experience culture shock. The food, for instance, was very different to Gamze. In Turkey, people cook their meats and vegetables with very few spices or none at all.

23 | incitemaguci.com | Fall/Winter 2010-11

Gamze confesses that she is not used to eating food containing a lot of spices and sauces.

“There are many kinds of sauces and spices being used in meals [in the United States]…so eating was a bit problematic for me”.

If the food was not shocking enough, the television channels proved to be very different from the Turkish channels. She was not used to the violence shown on the American television. “This really made me afraid of it,” said Gamze. “It wasn’t just in one channel…it was nearly the case for all channels. In Turkey, we have an institution looking and examining Turkish channels and when necessary, they close the channels for a day or two.”

Although Gamze is thousands of miles away from home, there are certain things that make home much closer. Her family photos show how close she is to her family. One September day, when Gamze and I were getting to know each other, Gamze showed me a picture frame of her and her parents. In the middle stood Gamze at ten years old. Her sweet smile curved between her plump cheeks. She wore a crisp white T-shirt with a rosy-colored skirt. White socks and black leather Mary Janes adorned her tiny feet.

On the left side of the photograph was her father Ísmet, wearing a Turkish military uniform. Gamze’s father once participated in the Turkish military and is now retired. Ísmet’s black suit was button down with gold buttons; a thick, tan belt embraced this waistline while a small, thin sash lay diagonally across his upper body. The expression on his tan face seemed neutral, but his lips were curving into a soft smile.

On the right side of the photograph was Sûreyya, a gentle figure wearing a formal beige outfit, consisting of dress pants, a simple shirt, and a cardigan with white buttons. Her hair was up into a gentle bun and her gold-rimmed glasses rested on her face. She may be far from her home country, but her family is always close to her heart.

The distance between a parent and child is never far.

a-muse-ing

7 MOST AWKWARD THINGS TO SEE ON PEOPLE'S LAPTOPS By Wes Koseki

It’s one of those days where you’re completely over being in class today, so you take refuge by sitting in the very last row of BS3 during lecture so you don’t have to pay attention. However, little did you know that you have just chosen the perfect vantage point to see what other people are looking at on their laptops while they’re “taking notes.”

1. Actual Notes Wait, what? Actual notes? Where’s the minimized Facebook window? Where are the hidden IM chats? They’re seriously taking notes! Damn good notes too! Sounds like you just found your new study buddy! Or at least someone you can channel your hatred towards when they break the curve by scoring the only 100% on the midterm.

2. World of Warcraft You can’t pull yourself away from your game for an hour lecture? You have to get to the next level, have to finish your quest, find that last item. Not only are you drawing attention to yourself by clicking constantly, but you’re also drawing attention to yourself by playing such an elaborate game. You might as well bring in a TV and your Xbox and play some Call of Duty too. Stick to Tetris or TextTwist, those are more subtle.

3. Browsing through self-portraits to find a new Facebook default picture Thank you, laptops, for coming with built in webcams. You have just made taking self-portraits significantly easier (though I use the term portrait extremely loosely) and eliminated someone’s forearm taking up 95% of the photo. However, browsing through your album of 300 self-portraits during lecture is awkward and narcissistic. Couple of things, kids: Duck lips are not attractive. Blowing out the colors, turning it black and white, or blurring the edges does not make your photo more artsy, looks more like you punched the keyboard while using Photoshop. You still look the same in every photo. And not everyone can pull off the Vogue face.

4. Anything related to Justin Beiber or the Jonas Brothers, including the fan page you run Seriously, how old are we?

5. Fine Art Nude Photographs No matter if you’re a professional photographer, a hobby photographer or specialize in Myspace self-portraits, looking at Fine Art Nude photographs in class is definitely awkward to look at during lecture, even if you blame the Stumbleupon application. Yes, the human body is beautiful, but is that really the type of thing you’ll want to look at except maybe during your anatomy class. You might as well break the fourth wall and look at straight pornography.

6. Facebook photos of your friends at a party you weren’t invited to So you had a pretty quiet night last night, you had to study and you assumed your friends were all studying too because you didn’t hear from them all night, until you see the person sitting in front of you browsing through photos from a party you weren’t invited to, yet somehow all your friends are in the pictures.

7. Your Own Facebook profile Back in lecture again, you spy on someone’s laptop about two rows in front of you the classic blue bar at the top of the page and the pointless advertisements on the right sidebar; they’re definitely on Facebook. The person clicks on the profile picture and begins to click through them. The pictures look awfully familiar. You have a photo from the beach just like that. You have a photo from clubbing just like that. You have a black and white photo like that you thought was so artsy. Then it dawns on you: that is your Facebook profile page. Those are your Facebook profile photos. Who is this person? You don’t even know them! How do they know you? Despite only seeing the back of their head, you know you have no idea who they are. Why are they looking through your photos and keep going back to that one where you’re almost naked? They better not send you a friend request.

Before you label me as a creeper, understand this: you’re in lecture, not your room. Don’t tell me I’m invading your privacy when it’s facing me. Not only can I see it, but also so can the other 249 students in class. Oh, and probably your TA who is most likely responsible for your grade. Someday you’ll learn, but until that happens I will enjoy watching what you choose to look at to distract you from lecture and add it to this list.

Graphic Illustration by Priya Gohil

Fall/Winter 2010-11 | incitemaguci.com | 24

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