The Commuter - January 2023

beyond the classroom

with Chris Berry with Lisa Hoogesteger

inspiration: it takes a little legwork

student artist spotlight

Fenryr Dragonson & Sahalie Bishop

letter editor from the

of 2022 tipsy on the New Year’s Resolution tonic, I had to turn the times into quieter ones. I focused on my classes, on The Commuter, on being a good friend, daughter, sister, aunt. And get this — all of that quiet work? All of those little steps taken to the beat of consistency? They are what inevitably led to the aforementioned, seemingly mythical, leaps and bounds of my year. They made it possible for me to obtain the successes I did, to harness big opportunities. I look back at those hard months and love that they existed. That January ash made way for a whole new fire, built from the same old me, brought to you by inspiration (and grit. Lots of grit.). Transformation doesn’t feel magical. It feels nearly impossible. And it happens when you keep trying anyway.

this time of year is a buzzy one. It’s generally looked at as a clean slate, a chance to make big changes, a kick-off to one of those Cinderella transformations where magic dust swirls around us as our flat, stringy hair (and all it may represent) becomes a smooth, expensive updo. Don’t get me wrong, I see the appeal. “New year, new me” is a catchy lyric in the siren song seemingly dedicated to us becoming “better” in some way. It’s sung to convince us that we, in fact, are needing to be leaps and bounds ahead of where we are now. We’re good. Not great. Not yet. And while that can undoubtedly ignite motivation, for me it all plays a bit big. The bells and whistles of this concept seem to overpower, while any steady rhythm is impossible to detect. Big Change gets the limelight, but it’s only there to soak it up because of Tiny Steps. And you know who we have to thank for those? The old you. And this means the old you (and me) have had to do the hardest thing of all: siphon out inspiration when things weren’t buzzy, when the song wasn’t being sung, when there wasn’t a bell nor a whistle on the scene. My friends, that is a task inarguably more monumental than transformation. And it simply cannot happen without the old us.

My January of last year wasn’t all sorts of fun and games. It brought a bit of loss — the kind that carries a lot of sadness and holds hands with a lot of anger — and didn’t leave too much room for fantasies of transformation. I was at capacity. Instead of walking through the start

Listen, I’m not here to crush any newlycrafted routines or cut down your latest ways for feeling your best. On the contrary, you’ve got nothing but my support and admiration! I am here to gently remind you (and me) that the older versions of ourselves have had to fight tooth and nail to get us where we are. So, as this new year and new term get off the ground and running, give the old you a prime seat at the table, even when you've been dissatisfied, even when things have felt stagnant. We’re not here for a total transformation, we’re here for reignited inspiration.

Welcome to Winter Term, Roadrunners. New year. Same us. Fresh ideas. Eat your heart

Editor-in-Chief

editor-in-chief design editor

LEAH BIESACK

KAILYN MCQUISTEN

CARSYN MEYERS

arts & lit editor

CODI WOOD

web editor

CAROLINA SALLES

sports editor reviews

STEVEN PRYOR

marketing director

RYAN JANOWITZ

staff advisor

ROB PRIEWE

contributors

BRENDA AUTRY

ELIJAH BENSON

SAHALIE BISHOP

REBEKAH BOND

JOSH CANDÉ

FEANRYR DRAGONSON

LISA HOOGESTEGER

KAILEY LEGIER

SARAH PRIETO

QUINN WAHL

the commuter is the student-run magazine for LBCC, financed by student fees and advertising. Opinions expressed in The Commuter do not necessarily reflect those of the LBCC administration, faculty and students of LBCC. Editorials, columns, letters, and cartoons reflect the opinions of the authors. LBCC is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

letters welcome

The Commuter encourages readers to use its “Opinion” section to express their views on campus, community, regional and national issues. The Commuter attempts to print all submissions received, but reserves the right to edit for grammar, length, libel, privacy concerns and taste. Opinions expressed by letter submitters do not represent the views of the Commuter staff or the College.

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wanna get together? We’re really nice and fairly cool and we’d love to hear what you have to say. Not big on journalism but love to journal? Perfect. Are you a STEM major with major opinions? Let’s hear ’em. Like writing about ’80s film? Local animals? Snack hacks? Maybe you have a hefty folder of flash fiction on your laptop, just dying to be published and printed. Drop us a line. We’d love to meet you, read you, and support you. Think your ideas might be too weird or too niche for submission? Even better. The Commuter is an award-winning publication because of our wide range of contributions and our unique contributors. So reach out. We’ll be staring at our email inbox in the meantime, not an ounce of chill to be had.

beyond the Chris Berry classroom:

words by BRENDA AUTRY photos by CHRIS BERRY

chris Berry, an instructor and department chair in Machine Tool Technology at LBCC, has always been a doer. Berry said that growing up in rural Wyoming, he was “One of the kids that got kicked out at first light and came back in when the street lights came on.” That constant motion and desire to be outdoors has stayed with Berry throughout his life, and has manifested in some really cool ways.

Berry received his Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of Wyoming, but in 2008 his love of working with his hands led him to Oregon where he attended Chemeketa Community College and received an Associate of Applied Science in both Machining and Drafting. After Chemeketa, Berry went to work for Viper NW in Albany where he stayed for several years and worked in many different roles.

Outside of his work life, Berry is an adventurer. He loves to be outdoors and he enjoys backpacking, kayaking and especially cycling.

“Cycling is my favorite, life-long hobby,” said Berry. “Cycling was my dad’s sport, so we always cycled together. When I was a teen I started racing mountain bikes. Now I do a lot of mountain biking by myself, and a lot in groups. I also do a lot of cycle touring on my bike. I like to go places and travel any way I can. That is what excites me.”

Another way Berry travels to new places is by kayaking. “Last summer, I did a multiday kayaking trip on the Willamette, kayaking from Eugene to Salem,” he said.

He’s even found a way to combine his love of cycling and kayaking. Berry said, “I got a new pack wrap, which is a folding rollup inflatable kayak, so I can bike and kayak at the same time. I did a few shorter trips where I biked to Corvallis and then paddled back to Albany with the bike on the front of the boat.”

True to his machinist background and

nature, Berry is also a builder. “Building, fabrication, and making things is something I’m always doing,” he said. “I do a lot of metal fab too. I have an adventure van I use for long road trips and camping, and it’s all self-built.”

“I also do custom car fabrication,” Berry said. “I have a 1969 GMC C10 that I’m restoring. It’s actually a ‘restomod’ since I lowered it seven inches, and cut it from a long to a short box—there’s not a lot of original truck left.”

build furniture,” he said.

He even likes cooking. “ I like baking bread,” Berry said. “The more complicated recipes are, the more entertaining I find them to make. I cook a lot of Indian food and things like that.”

Berry lives in Albany with his significant other, Kayla Herold; their two dogs: a rescue pug named Spark Pug (Spug for short) and a great dane named Indiana; and their tortoiseshell cat named Sheva.

“I take the little dog in the van but the big dog doesn’t fit well so he doesn’t like the van too much,” said Berry. “He [Spark Pug] goes on all my hikes with me. He even goes kayaking, and cycling when I’m on my own. And the big dog stays home.”

Berry started teaching in the Machine Tool Technology program at LBCC part-time in 2016, and was hired full-time in 2018. He says that he really enjoys teaching and that his students serve as his inspiration to keep teaching.

“I love seeing that lightbulb going on when students understand, and seeing them develop a skill set that they can take forward and start a career with,” he said. “I used to think of myself as a person who makes things, and now I think of myself as someone who makes machinists who make things. And that is the reward that keeps me coming back every day.”

Berry uses his custom truck to participate in autocross racing. Autocross is a form of amateur racing where participants drive through a course laid out on a large paved area and marked by traffic cones. One car goes through at a time, and drivers try to obtain the fastest time through the course. You have to be associated with a club to participate.

“The club I race with is mostly out of the Salem area and we race in Salem and at the Evergreen Aviation Museum,” Berry said. “I blew my motor up at the first race this year, but I’ve been doing it since 2012-13 and was class champion a couple of times.”

When he’s at home, Berry likes to do things around his house. “I do a ton of work in my own shop. A lot of home improvements, building things, fixing up my house. I even

As someone who seems to really enjoy life and does so much of what he loves, I asked Berry if he had any advice to give others looking to add a spark of enjoyment to their lives, and he had this to say:

“I think that life is far too short to be unhappy and we need to find things that make us happy. Whether that’s our careers, hobbies or personal lives, we need to find things we enjoy and keep striving for things that make us happy.”

“lightbulb I love seeing that going on when students understand...

” reward

...that is the that keeps me coming back every day

It Takes A Little Legwork INSPIRATION:

A Wellness Weigh-in from LB Advisor Lisa Hoogesteger

words by LISA HOOGESTEGER

I grew up in the Midwest. I did my bachelor’s degree in Oregon and my master’s degree in Massachusetts. After my graduate program, I was looking for inspiration to decide if I should stay on the East Coast or move back to Oregon. I came out of the local grocery store and saw a car with an Oregon license plate (rare to see in western MA). I thought, “There’s the sign?!! I should go back to Oregon.” And I was pretty elated for about... a minute. Then I thought, “Wait, maybe that means it’s like Oregon here and I should stay in Massachusetts!”

I’ve been talking with folks about what inspires them, where they find inspiration, and what inspiration may look and feel like. A common thread I’ve been hearing is that it comes from within – something I’ve heard and read related to “motivation,” as well. So even though inspiration can be intentional, it isn’t really something that is “done unto” you.

A colleague of mine, who has just retired from LBCC, relayed this tidbit about others who make a difference for us. He said, “I’m reminded of something I read about Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers.)

While accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Emmys, he asked his audience for a moment of silence to remember those who’d made a difference:

“So many people have helped me to come here to this night. Some of you are here, some are far away and some are even in Heaven. All of us have special ones who loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are, those who cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life. Ten seconds, I’ll watch the time. Whomever you’ve been thinking about, how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they have made.”

For me, even reading that was inspiring. Thinking about people who have inspired or contributed to my life reminds me that inspiration is often seen and felt after time has passed.

What else do folks say is inspiring, and where do they find inspiration?

• Being outdoors

• Doing something with energy

• Focusing internally

• Reading books from successful folks

• Watching Ted Talks or YouTube inspirational videos

• Going on an adventure

• Meditation

• Talking to friends, family or random others

• Writing out goals

• Being daring - skydive, scuba dive, bungee jump, learn to square dance

• Learning a new language or craft

• Writing a song or a poem or both

• Saying yes to something you usually say no to

• Being silent for a whole day

• Turning off electronics for a week

• Going for a solo hike

• Practicing deep breathing

• Picking a point on the globe and going there

• Talking to 100 other people about inspiration

All of these are good ideas, and any of them might lead to your personal inspiration. I do think you have to go looking, though. Keep searching. And remember to laugh at yourself.

NORTH SANTIAM HALL level 1 level 2

View an interactive map of LB’s Albany Campus here:

RED CEDAR HALL

CALAPOOIA CENTER

The final two bathrooms can be found in the Service Center building behind NSH in rooms 105 & 107. If you find yourself lost on campus, feel free to ask any staff member for directions or stop by the Student Union and someone will be happy to help you.

DRAGONSON

Artist Spotlight: FEANRYR

Meet the Artist:

My name is Feanryr. I came back to school to widen my artistic ability and challenge myself to find a new style of art for larger pieces. I find most of my artistic inspiration in travel and new experiences. Drawing to live music is still one of my favorite creative spaces I have found. Inspiration is like a river, and normal life acts like a dam – I find the less normal and simple life is, the more raw inspiration I find at my fingertips.”

Artist Spotlight: SAHALIE BISHOP

Meet the Artist:

My name is Sahalie Bishop and this is my first year at LBCC. I’m currently working towards my Bachelor of Arts, and eventually my teaching license.

I draw inspiration from many sources, primarily the art of Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, and Francisco Goya. I also incorporate references to Greek mythology, Celtic mythology, and Pagan literature that I find interesting. I also collect records and find listening to music helps my creative process. Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Stevie Nicks, Kate Bush, and Nirvana while I paint or draw.”

RUIN

words by QUINN WAHL

All is ashes, all is dust Even our steel shall one day rust Glass is shattered and buildings fall The fate of destruction belongs to us all Be it by fire, by wind or by hail All that we’ve crafted time doth assail Battered and broken we try and flee From the devouring force of eternity All is futile and devoid of hope The world, it hangs from a short short rope Soon all shall perish returning to nought The end is inevitable it cannot be fought The world will crumble and life will ail All that is man’s is doomed to fail.

photo by CONNOR DEMOTT VIA UNSPLASH

you’re my

northern star

words by SARAH PRIETO

I would follow you across the universe

I’d make a map of stars and call the constellations ours

I would make the sun envious of how beautiful you are

I can build us a home on every planet starting with Mars

We’d drive cars on the rings of saturn and try to create our own patterns

I’d make new rules

Pluto and us wouldn’t be left to rust

We can be Hades and Persephone without all the fuss

I would try to make earth a little less urgent

We can exchange riding bikes for asteroids

Maybe we’ll find R2D2 and build more androids

We can find Darth Vader and fight him like he’s the final boss

Lets travel to Neptune but survive the frost

Maybe we can try to find heaven just to say we crossed

I can make sure we never get lost no matter what the cost

We’d become like the Gods and defy all the odds

I would follow you across the universe

But I would like to be your northern star

wordsbyELIJAHBENSON

“Ok you just turn the knob and— see? Not too bad now is it.”

Jonathan stared down at the knob on the door, in his hand, in disbelief, then, through the door at his tiny apartment. A small pad sitting on the part of the doorknob, where a lock would normally be read: “Jonathan’s Place.” Jonathan had tapped it in as a joke, before sticking the doorknob to the door in front of him as previously instructed.

“This, can't, Troy, what the hell?” Jonathan tried to wrap his head around what was happening for a brief moment and decided to take a deep breath and let Troy describe why a barn in the middle of rural Montana could open up to Jonathan’s apartment in downtown Seattle.

“I knew you were well off, but damn man, Seattle? Anyways, this is exactly what I wanted to show you! Pretty cool isn’t it, try Osaka or London next; if you aren’t convinced that is.” Troy, incredibly pleased with himself, leaned against the tin siding faintly illuminated by the running lights of his truck.

“How did you do this,” Jonathan asked carefully as he closed the door, and pulled free the doorknob he had been holding a couple of inches above the one that was already set into the door.

“Ok I know a guy who knows a guy, who worked in that lab awhile back where they figured out the micro-scale space folding or whatever. I’m not the expert here, but I did get my hands on some toy they’ve been working on as a pet project for the last, say, thirty years?”

“It’s a wormhole,” Jonathan nodded, fiddling with the small pad as he tried to draw from his memory how to draw the characters for Osaka.

“Yeah that, they also said don’t try to type in anything that doesn’t actually exist; because it gets weird. They’re still working on that, but it's yours – free of charge,” Troy gave Jonathan a solid pat on the back with a satisfied grin.

“You’re, just giving this to me, I’m still trying to wrap my head around,” Jonathan just got talking as he stared at the door, scrutinizing the characters he had written as a triple check before shrugging and sticking it once more to the mandoor in front of him.

“Man, you ask a lot of questions for a guy who’s getting a gift. Call us even now — you’ve saved my life a couple of times whether you’ve realized it or not.” laughing, Troy gestured to the truck, “Let’s get back to the motel, I don’t want to find out what kind of rifle whoever lives around here is packing.”

Troy turned around, and heard the door open once more.

“Hey man, I know you’re excited to try it but,” Troy’s voice trailed off as he turned around. Jonathan stepped through the door to Osaka, but something was off about the destination on the other side. He had been to Osaka before but it didn’t quite look like what was waiting. Did he input the characters wrong?

“I’ll meet you there, I remember the address,” Jonathan said, looking around in awe as he stepped through the door, unknowingly into what Troy could only see as an uncanny distortion.

“Oh, not good, Jonathan wait–” but there was no chance to finish as the door shut, the knob following Jonathan beyond the threshold.

Troy, dumbfounded as he stood and stared at the gray metal door, held a hand to his head as he tried to steady his breathing. Praying his friend would be able to return safely.

doldrums, meet

daydreams

The dead of winter is a tough time to try and build a tinderbox of anything new and exciting. It makes a hard environment for fostering any sparks of inspiration, for keeping any embers of ideas alive and glowing. January is that frozen-over period, one that is muted, dulled from damp and the damndest amount of gray

to ever be allowed in a single state. So how do we light a match? From where do we siphon out even a sliver of light in order to keep our own selves lit up? We daydream. Specifically, of faraway lands, the ones that swirl with mystique, and effortlessly beam with beauty. Longtime Commuter contributor Brenda Autry traveled abroad

this Winter break, and along the way, she expertly captured the magic of Budapest, Prague, and Vienna from behind her lens. She brings a little of that magic dust back to us through these dreamy still frames taking up the page, laid out for all our daydreaming-into-infinity pleasure.

words by LEAH BIESACK photos by BRENDA AUTRY

▼ Looking through the entrance of Fisherman's Bastian on the Buda side of Budapest.

▼ The beautiful Christmas tree in front of City Hall, Vienna.

▲ The "Shoes on the Danube" is a memorial to the Jewish victims from Budapest who lost their lives along the shores of the Danube River during the Holocaust.

▲ Budapest's Parliament building, as seen from across the Danube.

▲ The Powder Tower, one of the last remaining towers of Old Town Prague's city wall.

▲ The main statue in the Maria Theresia Platz Vienna.

▲The St. Stephens Christmas market in Budapest, as seen from the observation deck of St. Stephens Cathedral.

SEE, HEAR, AND SPEAK SOME EVIL

A Monthly Horror Media Review

words by KAILEY LEGIER

You were kind of. . . He paused, thinking, then continued. . . A bitch last night.

I am your wife. I am a woman. I am this animal. I have become everything. I am new and also ancient. I have been ashamed but will be no more.

OPENERS

Cream-of-the-crop opening paragraphs throughout literary history

CANNERY ROW BY JOHN STEINBECK

Gold Medal 5word BOOK REVIEWS

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, “whores, pimps, gambler and sons of bitches,” by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, “Saints and angels and martyrs and holymen” and he would have meant the same thing.”

reviews by LEAH BIESACK

I’ll Be Right There

Shin Kyung-sook

Beautiful movement. Special. Intimate. Heavy.

Antarctica

Claire Keegan

Fueled by dark and eerie.

Chrysanthemums

John Steinbeck

Quick tension with quick release.

ROUGH ROADS

Note: This review is based on the current build of the games available as of this writing. Your experience may vary depending on the version update you’re playing.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are the latest games in the Pokémon franchise, marking the first fully open-world entries in the series. As a start to the ninth main generation of the series, the games mark a satisfying start to a new era of the series despite some admitted issues at launch.

Taking place in the Paldea region (which is heavily based on Spain and neighboring countries), this game sets the player as a student at the Pokémon Academy, one who takes part in an independent study project known as the “Treasure Hunt.” The story has three distinct main quests. On top of the Gym Challenge (which can be done completely nonlinearly for the first time in the series’ history), there are two additional quests; “Starfall Street,” in which the player must take down factions of delinquent students known as Team Star, and “The Search for the Herba Mystica,” where you help an upperclassman named Arven find a rare herb by engaging in battle with new Titan scale Pokémon.

As of these games, the overall amount of monsters in the Pokédex has passed 1,000 overall. On top of the series mascot Pikachu, a trio of new starters lead off the new monsters. They consist of Sprigatito, a grass-type cat with a relaxing aroma, Fuecoco, a fire-type who resembles a gator with a laid-back attitude, and Quaxly, a water-type duck that prides itself on the beauty of its feathers. This time around, the legendaries are Koraidon and Miraidon, a pair of dragons with ties to the game’s past and future.

One notable new mechanic is the “Terastal Phenomenon,” which allows players to get a boost in power, along with new abilities for their monsters turning into a crystalline form once per battle. Players can also fully customize their avatars for the first time in the

PUBLISHER: Nintendo/ The Pokémon Company

DEVELOPER: Game Freak

PLATFORM: Nintendo Switch

ESRB RATING: E

OVERALL RATING: ★★★★

words by STEVEN PRYOR

photos by THE POKÉMON COMPANY

series’ history, with the flexibility being on par with the likes of Nintendo’s Mii characters, the Splatoon trilogy and recent Animal Crossing titles. Paralleling the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Rockstar’s open-world titles, these games easily rank among the most ambitious Pokémon titles to date.

That’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement. The launch build of the games required day-one and day-zero updates to play, and the performance does have some admitted and intermittent issues. The visual presentation, while retaining the distinctive look and feel of the franchise along with its own graphical flair for this generation, does have moments of frame rate slowdown and occasional flickering. Though the discourse about how this reflects on the developers and the hardware is ongoing (with the analysis by Digital Foundry on their YouTube channel being a notable standout), it is clear that

DOWN

01) Condiment at the sushi bar

30) Speaker's place Puzzle 1 (Easy, difficulty rating 0.34) Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Thu Jan 19 03:04:54 2023 GMT. Enjoy!

02) Classic Harlem theater

03) High IQ type

04) Landscaping tool

05) They're worth 2 points in the NHL

06) Do sums

07) Fishing pole

08) Mercury or Saturn

09) They're big at the Golden Arches

10) It's measured in square units

11) "With honor," on a diploma

12) Attorneys' org.

13) Pallid

18) Netherlands ____ (island group)

19) ____ King Cole

23) Isn't wrong?

Men's neckwear pins

Hungry feeling

Once around the block 35) Filler of many

Do-over requested by a failing student

Houston baseballer, familiarly

See 46-D

Flesicher, Gold or Shapiro "Multitalented"

) Truck driver SUDOKU Complete the grid so each row, column, and 3x3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit. North: 2855 NW Grant Ave. South: 1007 SE Third St.

Makes bales of grass 2 Corvallis locations open 7am-9pm daily @firstaltcoop

Hindu god of destruction FOR STUDENTS with valid student ID from an Oregon college

Use a letter opener 15% off produce

Edit menu option Tuesdays at the Co-op ▼ View last edition’s answers!

Steve Zisser

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