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LIFE & ARTS • PAGE B1

Daily recaps Sooner season

Party planning made easy

Sports Editor James Corley compares his preseason predictions for the OU football team to the regular-season results

The Daily’s Caitlin Turner (shown right) offers her advice on planning a nontraditional, low-budget holiday party

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FOR A FULL SPORTS PREVIEW OF THE FIESTA BOWL, SEE PAGE B6

UOSA officers reflect on fall UOSA president, vice president fulfill some campaign promises; leave others for spring term CHASE COOK The Oklahoma Daily

MERRILL JONES/THE DAILY

Students cheer during the OU-Texas football game Oct. 2 in Dallas. Some OU students will travel to Glendale, Ariz, for the Sooners’ bowl game Jan. 1.

Students eye Fiesta vacation Sooner fans plan trip to Arizona to watch OU play Connecticut in BCS bowl Jan. 1

into a more extravagant vacation. University College freshman Katy Clarke is flying from Dallas to Phoenix on Dec. 28 with her mom, dad, sisters and two friends from OU. The group will meet three more friends from her residence hall when they arrive at a hotel in Phoenix, she said. “We’re staying at the hotel right next to the stadium and we’re going to the Fiesta Bowl New Year’s block party,” Clarke said. Clarke has attended every football game this season, home or away, including the Big 12 Championship game in Arlington, Texas. “I planned on going to whatever bowl OU played in. After we won the Big 12 Championship and got home, my dad bought the tickets for the Fiesta Bowl,” Clarke said. Clarke estimated the cost of her trip would be around $1,000. Kevin Easley, international business and finance sophomore, also plans to begin his trip by leaving Dec. 28 from Tulsa to Phoenix with his dad. Though he is making the trip with his dad, Easley said they will hang out with two other members of his fraternity, Sigma Chi. Easley said he only intended on traveling to a bowl if OU was playing in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

JOSEPH TRUESDELL The Oklahoma Daily

About 1,030 miles separate OU from the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., where the Sooners will play in the 40th annual Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Students will travel in many ways to watch the Sooners attempt to defeat the University of Connecticut Huskies on Jan. 1. A group of five girls, all members of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, plan to begin their trek from Norman to Phoenix at 7 a.m. Dec. 30. “My big [Clarke Erickson] lives 30 minutes away from the Fiesta Bowl … she invited a bunch of us to come out there and stay with her if we decided to go to the game,” said Laura Gustafson, sociology and criminology junior. “We all decided it was a pretty good deal … Plus I’m obsessed with Sooner football.” The girls chose to take advantage of the free housing and split the cost of gas, leaving them to only pay for tickets, which cost $140 through the OU Ticket Office, Gustafson said. Other Sooner fans have decided to turn the trip

What to do while in Glendale Students heading to the Fiesta Bowl should know University of Phoenix Stadium is adjacent to the Westgate City Center. “Westgate City Center is one of the largest and most exciting mixed-use, urban developments in North America,” said Lorraine Pino, Glendale Convention and Visitor’s Bureau manager. Pino said Westgate City Center will provide great options for students traveling to the game and many businesses will be open New Year’s Eve and Day for gameday travelers. For a list of restaurants, bars, shopping and hotels near the stadium, visit OUDaily.com.

As the UOSA president and vice president look back at the fall semester with pride, they look forward with confidence. Franz Zenteno, UOSA president and international studies graduate student, and Cory Lloyd, UOSA vice president and advertising senior, are halfway through their elected term. They haven’t been able to get all of their campaign promises completed, but Zenteno said they are elected for a full year, not just the fall semester. “We are doing our best to get them done before the end of the academic year,” Zenteno said. Lloyd said this year’s cabinet had a lot of freshman, and their new fervor helped them push toward the Zenteno and Lloyd’s goals. “It’s been a great experience,” Lloyd said. “We still have time to get things done.” UOSA staff adviser Brynn Daves said she has enjoyed working with Zenteno and Lloyd. “Franz and Cory have done very well this fall...” Daves said in an email. “It is great to see their constant support of students and the OU community.” Before graduating in May, Lloyd and Zenteno plan to fulfill their campaign goals. Unaccomplished goals and new initiatives will be passed on to the next administration, Zenteno said. “At the end of the day, we are writing a chapter for our story,” Zenteno said. “I think it will have a happy ending.” UOSA will hold elections in March and the new president and vice president will be sworn into office in April. SEE UOSA PAGE 2

Religious tension keeps student from family at holidays International student cannot return home during winter break due to violence between Muslims, Christians in Iraq NATASHA GOODELL Contributing Writer

A church bombing halfway around the world altered Mariam Edwar’s holiday plans. Edwar, a first-year international student from Baghdad, said she never felt a difference between Muslims and Christians in her country, but since being in the United States, recent events in Iraq have changed these feelings. “After the attacks on the churches and the bombing of the church in Baghdad, Christians are pretty much targets in Iraq to al-Qaeda,” said Edwar, a Christian. “For me, I felt terrible after the attacks, because those people hadn’t done anything and they killed them, just because they’re Christian.” Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad was attacked Oct. 31, and the bombing left 58 people dead and many more wounded. “Because of the situation for Christians right now,

or anyone who has been in the United States, my parents aren’t letting me go back because they’re afraid I might get hurt,” Edwar said. As Americans leave Iraq, everyone expects instability and as there is instability, Christians will be the first ones to be effected, said Joshua Landis, OU’s Center of Middle East Studies director. “The attacking of the church was a big blow to the Christian community because they were the targets,” Landis said. Charles Kimball, religious studies program director, spent a great deal of his life in the Middle East and said there has been a lot of violence in Iraq since 2003, especially between the Shiite and Sunni people. “What is triggering it now is not exactly clear,” Kimball said. “There are definitely still people in Iraq who want to see the peace disrupted and would do anything for it, even attacking churches. So the Christian community is in a very precarious position.” The Christians, who lived in the Middle East long

A LOOK AT WHAT’S NEW AT Visit OUDaily.com throughout winter break for updates on the football team’s Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl matchup

JALL COWASJI/ THE DAILY

University College freshman, Mariam Edwar, will be staying with her sister over SEE IRAQ PAGE 2 Christmas break in the US. She is an international student from Baghdad.

INDEX

THIS WEEK’S WEATHER

Campus .............. A2 Life & Arts ........... B1 Opinion .............. A6 Puzzles .......... A5 Sports ................ B4

Temperature to hit high Wednesday Visit the Oklahoma Weather Lab at owl.ou.edu

A2 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

CAMPUS

OUDAILY.COM ›› Check the website throughout winter break for updates and information

Reneé Selanders, managing editor dailynews@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666

Students snag cash with winter-break jobs Students working seasonally can make a lot of money, freshman says LAUREN CASONHUA The Oklahoma Daily

As winter break takes employees away from Norman and sends some students back to their home town, businesses begin looking for seasonal employees. Students working seasonally can make up to $1,000 in a month, said Lindsey Boren, University College freshman. Boren, who has worked at Target in Flower Mound, Texas, since November 2008, said she earns $9.55 an hour. In a month, she was earning as much as $900. Jason Gentry, assistant manager for the University Bookstore, said the store hires seasonally because it is not financially feasible to maintain a large regular

staff. The bookstore is currently in the hiring process for the winter months, and students who are hired in December typically work until February. Ratcliffe’s Textbooks also hires seasonally. Manager Charissa Siebert said many of its employees leave for Christmas break, which also is the crucial preparation time before the book rush in January when students return. Ratcliffe’s will hire employees for minimum wage during the December to January preparation period, and the store require its employees to work 20 hours a week — preferably until the book rush period ends. Along with seasonal jobs, Siebert said she is always hiring and “never turns down an application.” Seasonal employees at Target work approximately

IRAQ: Country still torn by war Continued from page 1

JALL COWASJI/ THE DAILY

Anthropology senior Jessica Roman works at the University Bookstore. Roman is a seasonal employee for the store. There are several seasonal employment opportunities available for students who wish to work during the holday season. 25 hours per week, Boren said. “A lot of people who go to college have to quit their job,” Boren said. “Being able to come back and be

seasonal again is nice.” B o re n s a i d s e a s o n a l workers have the option of going on “leave” when they are unable to work, and then returning when they

are available. Boren said the money she earns during breaks goes into her savings and pays for her sorority expenses and Christmas gifts.

before Islam appeared on the scene, are still the minority group and it’s not surprising that many of them have left, Kimball said. Edwar said she will spend her holiday break with family at her sister’s home in Minnesota. “I will have a normal Iraqi Christmas,” Edwar said. “I’m so excited about the Iraqi food and getting to see my sister and her family, because I haven’t seen my sister in a year.” Edwar said Christmas in Iraq is like Christmas in the United States.

UOSA: Administration outlines its progress of campaign promises Continued from page 1 CAMPAIGN PROMISES ACCOMPLISHED • Increase parking availability: Zenteno and Lloyd talked about using Twitter to update students on space availability and other information, Zenteno said. The parking office created @OUParking and tweets daily. • Visibility of green initiatives: The executive branch will launch a pilot department of sustainability this spring to look at promoting sustainability, Zenteno said. • Alcohol policy: A dialogue was opened with SafeRide regarding availability, Zenteno said. SafeRide was able to increase their fleet so students don’t have to wait as long to get home safely, Lloyd said. The wait time for SafeRide is currently 15 to 35 minutes, which

is shorter than during the spring 2010 semester, said Daves, SafeRide director.

CAMPAIGN PROMISES FOR THE SPRING • Laptop check-out program: To allow more students to check out laptops, Zenteno and Lloyd are working to change the laptop checkout system by making students wait a day before they can checkout a laptop again. Currently, students can check laptops out for 48 hours and renew it upon return. • Involved.ou.edu: The executive branch is working with student life to launch a database streamlining opportunities to get involved on campus. The database is still in the planning stage and will appear on the student life’s website this spring, said Emily Hilburn, assistant to Student Life director. • IT upgrades: The executive branch has

been working with IT to get more electrical outlets placed around campus, Lloyd said. This will be finished in the spring, Zenteno said. The executive branch is currently working to replace the two-plug outlets around campus with split outlets allowing four to six electronics to be plugged in, Lloyd said in an e-mail. There is also a push to have recharge stations for electronics, Lloyd said.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS • Course evaluation results available online: The department of academic affairs posted course evaluation results online this semester, Zenteno said. • Advising website: The department of academic affairs worked with Joyce Allman, associate provost of academic advising, to create an academic advising website that

consolidated OU’s advising information.

SPRING PLANS NOT ON CAMPAIGN PLATFORM • Alternative spring break project: Zenteno said UOSA plans to create inexpensive spring break alternatives for students. • Mental Health Awareness week: Zenteno said there are plans for a week to inform students about services provided by OU to help them with depression, anxiety and other neurological issues. • UOSA funding workshop: The workshop will help student organizations understand how to apply for funding. • Questions, comments and concerns: The executive branch, along with the rest of student government, will launch an e-mail account that will monitor and consolidate feedback from students.

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GRADUATION

Finals Week, Fall 2010 • A3

COLUMN

College of Arts and Sciences Convocation 6:30 p.m. Friday Lloyd Noble Center 2900 S. Jenkins Ave.

Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy Graduation Reception 6:30 p.m. Friday Sarkey’s Energy Center, East Atrium 100 E. Boyd St.

College of Engineering Graduation Recognition and Reception 6:30 p.m. Friday Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Beaird Lounge 900 Asp Ave.

Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education Convocation 7 p.m. Friday Catlett Music Center 500 W. Boyd St.

College of Architecture Graduation Recognition and Reception 10 a.m. Saturday Arc-on-Main 550 W. Main St.

Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts Convocation 10:30 a.m. Saturday Reynolds Performing Arts Center 560 Parrington Oval

College of Liberal Studies Convocation 10:30 a.m. Saturday Catlett Music Center 500 W. Boyd St.

Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication Convocation 11 a.m. Saturday Catlett Music Center 500 W. Boyd St.

School of International and Area Studies Convocation 3 p.m. Saturday Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Meacham Auditorium 900 Asp Ave.

Energy Management Graduation Luncheon 2 p.m. Sunday Embassy Suites Norman – Hotel and Conference Center 2501 Conference Drive

Michael F. Price College of Business Convocation Honors Aviation undergraduate programs 4 p.m. Sunday Embassy Suites Norman – Hotel and Conference Center 2501 Conference Drive

The college afterlife I’ll admit it; I thought finding a job after college was going to be easy. I went job STAFF COLUMN UMN hunting and instead of finding the coveted and lucrative nine-to-five job, I am in grad RJ Youngg school with five writing gigs that leave me sleeping a whole four hours a day and not necessarily at night either. Employers wanted the professional experience of a 30-year-old. Naturally, this perplexed me, so I started digging for answers. I talked to 22- to 30 years-olds to find out what they believe is going on. Then I questioned the academic guild. I consider my findings to be interesting, intuitive and practical.

THE RECENT GRADUATE If you told Bryan Ogden he’d be living out his mid-20s in the Fukushima Prefecture, just a couple hours north of Tokyo he probably would have given you a silly look and laughed about it. But that’s exactly where he is and he loves it. A typical day for Ogden includes teaching native Japanese citizens to read and write in English. They range in age from 7 to 45 years old and all have had varying degrees of English language education already. His job takes him all across Japan and can be spontaneous at times, though he doesn’t mind it. “Sometimes I will work from noon to 9 p.m. without much of a break,” Ogden said. “But other days, I will have a two-hour session during the day, and then one later in the evening.” Like most graduating college seniors he needed a job, and in 2006, after graduating with an advertising degree, Ogden started out with all the zeal of a new college graduate as a marketing When we receive that manager. After logging 12-hour days worthless little diploma for a year and getting engaged, he rewe have no neon arrow alized he didn’t like the direction his pointing us in the very best current occupation. He re-evaluated his life. direction.” Ogden made connections, wrote queries and networked. — SARAH TOMECEK, “I started researching available poTRINITY UNIVERSITY GRADUATE sitions overseas. I decided that for an overseas position, with my personality, that English was probably my biggest asset, so I used that,” he said. Within a few months, he landed his current job teaching in Japan. He has liked his job from the outset and has plans to stay in Tokyo for at least the duration of his contract.

THE CAREER CHANGER Sarah Tomecek, a 23-year-old graduate from Trinity University in San Antonio, became a high school Spanish teacher thinking happiness would come from a steady, honorable job and income. She was wrong. After quitting her teaching job and working unfulfilling jobs for a year, she is looking for an occupation that fits her, not rushing into one. “I think some kids feel too pressured to grow up and find the ‘perfect fit,’” Tomeck said. “The middle and upper classes believe because it is socialized into us from the moment we are born that we are meant to be something great — and if not enjoy what we do then at the very least gain recognition and/or large sums of money for it.” The life after college taught to recent college graduates is not the reality of the college afterlife. College students are taught if they do well in school the dreams they chase will become reality, but Tomecek said it’s not that easy.

“We are lead down a path from kindergarten on through college knowing exactly what is expected of us,” Tomecek said. “When we receive that worthless little diploma we have no neon arrow pointing us in the very best direction.” Today, Tomecek is working toward a degree in nursing. She believes her calling in life is to help people. And helping people makes her happy.

THE ACADEMIC Beyond a bulletin board of political wisecracks, profeminist slogans and unflattering statements about former President George W. Bush, I found Trina L. Hope in Kaufman Hall. Hope extinguished a frame of thinking that has spread like a grease fire that presumes GenerationY to be the laziest American generation yet. “It wasn’t as if a whole generation of kids woke up and decided ‘Hey I’m just gonna be a slacker.’ These changes occur because something big in society occurs and of course that big thing that occurred was that change in economy from a manufacturing economy to a more technology service based economy,” Hope said. More of the U.S. population is going back to college to earn a degree of some sort but, eventually jobs are going to be needed for those eggheads walking around with bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. Hope underscores creating those jobs as the challenge for the recovering economy. “We have to create the industry to supply all those educated people with jobs,” Hope said.

THE FINDINGS There are two unequivocal economical truths today’s college graduate can count on. The first is that those who graduate college have an exceedingly better chance of living a better life. The second is that they will learn from their undergraduate degree what it is they are and are not capable of. The second is exceedingly more important than the first. Less opportunities, more college students and a growing need for more education and professional development among the workforce has presented the country with problems that have yet to be seen and a need for a working solution is at its peak. College seniors are finding it increasingly hard to find jobs in the current economic climate. They are slowly learning the reality of the college afterlife: it’s equally as important as to what you know as it is who you know. To read the full column, visit the life & arts section at OUDaily.com.

December graduates prepare to move on THE BUSINESSWOMAN

THE PALEONTOLOGIST

THE DANCER

Kelly Brecheisen will graduate Sunday with accounting and finance degrees after 4 1/2 years. Originally, she came to OU with no idea as to what she wanted to do. “I decided that even though I still did not know exactly what I wanted to do with my life, accounting and finance would provide me with great opportunities,” Brecheisen said. While at OU, Brecheisen was involved in Gamma Phi Beta sorority, Sooner Scandals Kelly Executive Committee and Brecheisen Alpha Lambda Delta. “Get involved in everything you can because you never know what friends you will make or what you might learn about yourself,” Brecheisen said. “Don’t take your time at OU for granted because graduation comes sooner than you think.” After graduation, Brecheisen will work as a business consultant at Cerner Corp. in Kansas City, Mo. “I cannot wait to see what lies ahead for me,” Brecheisen said. “The 6:30 a.m. alarm will come early and big city living will probably be a little scary, but I believe I am ready for it.”

Charles Baker has been in no hurry to graduate. After nine years of hard work, he will graduate with his master’s in geology. “I always wanted to pursue paleontology since I was little,” Baker said. “You can choose two routes when pursuing this degree, either zoology or geology, and I chose geology. I always felt I was better dealing with inanimate things.” His project on vertebrate paleontology focused on livCharles ing and extinct bats. Baker Since 2009, Baker has been involved with the WhittenNewman ExplorOlogy Program, affiliated with the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. Through this program, Baker leads middle and high school students in searches for dinosaur fossils. “I absolutely love my job and hopefully am giving students of all ages over Oklahoma a chance to have a hands-on science experience,” Baker said. “I am very fortunate.” Baker doesn’t think college should be rushed. “I would say work hard, have fun, make friends and do well,” Baker said. “It’s the most amazing feeling when you are finished.”

Ballet performance major Kristin Young will graduate after a short 3 1/2 years. “I have enjoyed OU so much,” Young said. “The people are friendly, the campus is beautiful, and the professors are fabulous.” Young did not work while in college, but did have the opportunity to perform in multiple ballets. “My parents have always said that school is my job,” Young said. “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Kristin Nutcracker,” “Divertimento Young No. 15,” “The Firebird,” and “Carmina Burana” are a few of the ballets that Young has performed in. Young plans to continue dancing as a career and will audition for ballet companies this spring. As this year’s Outstanding Senior in the College of Fine Arts, Young emphasizes the importance of hard work. “Keep working hard,” Young said. “Enjoy your time here and get involved on campus.” — Megan Deaton/The Daily

END-OF-SEMESTER FOLLOW UPS

A4 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

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Student government moves forward Congress, Senate pass major legislation and elect new leaders this fall • Elections: During the Nov. 9 and 10 elections, 24 students were elected as representatives in 10 Congress districts. Only 6 percent of OU students voted in the election and election chairwoman Natalie Jester said she plans to educate students about the spring election ballot issues and offices.

manage all four UOSA websites. The webmaster will keep sites in compliance with state and local laws requiring groups to post meeting agendas and minutes online, representative Joseph Ahrabizad said in an e-mail. The webmaster will be paid $9 per hour for 10 hours of work per week. No hiring date has been set.

• Pre-finals week: On Nov. 30, Congress passed a bill to initiate discussion with the Faculty Senate about making pre-finals week easier for stu• Budgetary Procedures Reform dents. The bill challenged the Faculty Act of 2010: On Dec. 5, the Graduate Senate’s March 9, 2009, decision to Stu d e nt S e nat e a p p rove d t h e table any discussion of the policy until Budgetary Procedures Reform Act of Natalie Jester 2014. Congress wants to prohibit pro2010, which sets all budget-related deadlines at the discretion of budget chairman fessors from assigning coursework due during pre-finals week worth more than 5 percent of a Sean Bender, chemistry sophomore. student’s grade. According to a Dec. 8 article in • Emergency allocations: Five rounds of The Daily, the Faculty Senate has agreed to meet emergency allocations were approved by GSS with Congress to discuss the proposed changes. and UOSA, with approximately $2,450 divided As of publication, no date has been set. among registered student groups. • Code Annotated Reform Act: Congress • We b m a s t e r p o s i t i o n c r e a t e d : T h e voted to create a committee to reorganize and Webmaster Act of 2010 passed in Congress and recreate its Code Annotated, UOSA’s set of GSS and a webmaster will be hired this spring to guidelines, at its Sept. 7 meeting. The committee,

WeCar program has 110 fall rentals The four cars in OU’s new WeCar rental program racked up 110 rentals during the program’s first semester, a parking services spokeswoman said. OU teamed with Enterprise Car Rental at the beginning of the semester to offer WeCar, a rental service for students and faculty without a vehicle on campus. The program has 34 active renters who regularly use the four available cars and 24 pending members who are completing paperwork, said Vicky Holland, OU Parking Services spokeswoman. “This tells me that the usage is going to increase,” Holland said. If the number of rents continues to increase, more cars may be added to the WeCar fleet in a year, Holland said. Lydia Yu, health and exercise science junior, is a frequent WeCar renter and uses it on weekends to run errands, go to church or get to babysitting jobs. “I really think it is helpful for someone like me who does not have a car,” Yu said. WeCar rental fees vary depending on the car model, according to the program’s website. Hourly rates range from $8 to $12, and daily rates are $55 to $65. Overnight rates range between $30 to $45. Rental fees cover gasoline and mileage costs up to the first 200 miles. Additional charges of $0.45 per mile occur after the first 200 miles. — Jiyeun Heo/The Daily

which claims members from Congress and GSS, aims to organize the Code Annotated in such a way that anybody can read and recognize, said committee co-chairman and Congress chairman Brett Stidham. The committee will begin work on the revisions after winter break. • GSS chairman changes: Chairman Silas DeBoer resigned from his position Oct. 12, citing financial reasons. DeBoer posted his resignation on the Senate website. When DeBoer resigned, vice chair woman Kiersten Sandfoss was unable to perform chair duties due to illness, leading secretary Esther White to fulfill chair duties until a new chair could be elected. Derrell Cox Derrell Cox was elected chairman Nov. 7, beating out law and business graduate student Nicholas Harrison and graduate student Susan Adams-Johnson. Cox promised to streamline meetings while not cutting corners.

80 percent of parking tickets voided this fall This semester, 1,382 parking ticket appeals have been submitted to OU Parking Services. The parking office voided 84.8 percent of those tickets for first offenses or other valid reasons, said parking spokeswoman Vicky Holland. The Parking Appeals Court reviewed the other 210 tickets. They reduced 89 tickets, voided 20 and sustained 101 tickets. Court members have worked hard to review all parking tickets in a timely manner, said Alexandra Philbrick, UOSA Parking Appeals Court chief justice. — Chase Cook/The Daily

Parking Appeals Board timeline

— Danny Hatch/The Daily

CONSTRUCTION | GOULD HALL NEARS COMPLETION

Sept. 15: 117 tickets piled up as board members awaited confirmation from Student Congress and the Graduate Student Senate Sept. 19: GSS confirmed the Parking Appeals Board Sept. 21: Congress’ meeting was canceled. While the Parking Appeals Board waited for confirmation, tickets continued to back up Sept. 28: Congress approved the board

MARCIN RUTKOWSKI/THE DAILY

Construction on the College of Architecture’s Gould Hall is scheduled to be complete Jan. 17, though students won’t begin classes in the renovated building until fall 2011. Remaining construction consists of painting, laying additional sheetrock, installing floors and connecting the building’s power, said Christina Hoehn, college spokeswoman. The building, originally constructed in 1950, closed in May 2008 for renovations and a 25,000 squarefoot addition. Building renovations include more than 107,000 square feet of space, two courtyards and a two-story gallery for student work to be displayed, along with common areas, study rooms and team rooms, according to renovation plans. Architecture students will continue courses at the Arc-on-Main campus, 550 W. Main St., until August.

Oct. 19: Congress voted to change the Parking Appeals Board to the Parking Appeals Court and increased membership from six to nine Oct. 28: The Parking Appeals Board reviewed 110 appealed tickets. It reduced 43, voided 14 and sustained 53 *Source: Daily archives and OU Parking Services

8ggcp ]fi Xe Fj_\i I\\ekip JZ_fcXij_`g 8mX`cXYc\ ]ifd k_\ :fcc\^\ f] C`Y\iXc Jkl[`\j Open to any eligible University of Oklahoma undergraduate student

Hurry! Deadline to apply is January 3rd for semester-long and first eight-week courses and February 15th for second eight-week courses. Applicants must meet the following criteria to apply: • Minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA in previous coursework • Cumulative gap of at least 5 years out of school from the time a student began undergraduate studies until present • At least 50% of coursework is completed on-site or hybrid (mixture of on-site and online) • Demonstration of financial need, academic promise, and commitment to obtaining a degree • Student is expected to participate in workforce following graduation Comments from previous Osher recipients: "The true meaning of life is one’s ability to utilize opportunities to reach out and help others. The Osher scholarship epitomizes that philosophy." "The Osher Scholarship…has been instrumental in helping me achieve my dream of finishing my education and gave me what I needed to attain my professional goals."

Download an application www.ou.edu/cls/scholarships Questions? Please contact 405-325-1061 The Osher Reentry Scholarship Program is made possible by funding from The Bernard Osher Foundation, San Francisco, California.

PUZZLES

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Previous Solution

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Monday- Very Easy Tuesday-Easy Wednesday- Easy Thursday- Medium Friday - Hard

Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

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Monday- Very Easy Tuesday-Easy Wednesday- Easy Thursday- Medium Friday - Hard

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Monday- Very Easy Tuesday-Easy Wednesday- Easy Thursday- Medium Friday - Hard

6 7 8 Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Do you have aspirations of being an accountant for a major corporation? Student Media provides the training grounds for student journalists and sales people, but we also give accounting students the opportunity to experience a challenging accounting role in Student Media, a campus revenue/auxiliary unit. Experience Required: Must be a Master's in Accounting candidate and have worked in a summer internship in a Big 6 firm or corporate accounting department. Must have experience in accrual based accounting and must be willing to work within tools like PeopleSoft and other internal accounting computer programs. Apply at Copeland Hall, Rm 149A (Business Office).

Student Media is a department within OUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s division of Student Affairs. For accommodations on the basis of a disability, please call 325-2521. The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution.

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Monday- Very Easy Tuesday-Easy Wednesday- Easy Thursday- Medium Friday - Hard

Job Opening: Part-Time Student Accountant Position in Student Media

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Monday- Very Easy Tuesday-Easy Wednesday- Easy Thursday- Medium Friday - Hard

Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

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1 4 8 6 9 3 2 7 5

4 1 2 8 6 5 3 9 7

5 3 6 2 8 7 4 1 9

5 6 3 4 7 9 1 8 2

7 2 9 1 5 4 6 3 8

4 9 1 1 2 9 6 7 9 3

1 9 4 2 5 3 7 6 8

2 6 1 9 3 5 8 4 7

8 3 4

6 4 8

2 3 6 7 4 8 9 5 1

4 9 5 7 1 8 3 2 6

6 7 4 2 7 9 5

7 8 5 9 1 6 4 2 3

1 8 3 9 6 2 7 4 5

Puzzle 5 Solution

Previous Solution

9 2 6 7 4 5 1 8 3

Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

7 9 4

6 1 4 3 2 9 2 8 8 7 9 8 9 6

3 7 4 9

3 8 7 4 2 6 9 5 1

3 6 5 2 9 4 1 7 8

6 5 3 8 4 1 7 9 2

3 7 9 4 6 8 2 8 9 5

8 1 2 3 7 9 5 6 4

8 6 6 9 4 3 2 8 5 6 3 2 5 7 4 1 8 9 3 6 1 7 7 4

9 7 4 5 6 2 1 8 3

Finals Week, Fall 2010 â&#x20AC;˘ A5

A6 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

OPINION

Jared Rader, opinion editor dailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-7630

OUR VIEW

Stay informed over the break Soon, exams will be finished and students will have a long winter break to refresh themselves before hitting the grind again in the spring. Whether you go on vacation, stay at home or take an intersession course, we encourage you to keep up with the latest news during your break. A lot can happen in a month and an informed citizenry is needed now more than ever. As we work on this finals week edition, Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is entering his sixth hour filibustering the tax compromise President Barack Obama made with the stronger Republican force in Congress. Obama reneged on his attempts to repeal tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of

Americans in exchange for an extension of unemployment benefits. Both issues have an enormous impact on the U.S. economy still battling a draining recession, and whichever side you fall on doesn’t benefit unless you get involved. Because of the recession, students graduating this December are facing a challenging job market. Whether you’re staving it off for graduate school or taking a job head on, we salute you. In Oklahoma, the state is facing a number of crises. An estimated $800 million budget shortfall, ever-decreasing funds for common and higher education and some of the nation’s highest incarceration rates plague the

Thumbs up, thumbs down fall semester in review

state, and it will be up to us to make sure our leaders serve us above special interests. At the university, colleges are preparing for a 5 percent budget cut next year. Some majors could be cut and class sizes increased. It will only go as far as we let it. The students are the university’s lifeblood. We have the power to enact change if we choose to wield it, but we have to do it together. We’ll enjoy our break as well, but we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for the news you need so you know how to impact your campus when you return.

Comment on this column at OUDaily.com

COLUMN

Daily columnist bids OU farewell Editor’s note: Tucker Cross will graduate Friday.

have, quite frankly, an easy job (although we do still STAFF COLUMN UMN Those of you reading this are either wasting time not complain!). We submit studying for fall finals or taking an extra class for the win- an opinion column every Tucker Cross oss ter intersession. If you are in the former group, please re- two weeks, and then we turn to your studies! Don’t let my extremely handsome twiddle our thumbs to see profile picture fool you: This article is not as important what responses we get online. Usually we get disappointed: the comments online as my face. Waaay back in 2007, when I was just a lad … um … are not always the most enlightened, positive or coherent freshman, I remember the excitement I felt, stepping into pieces of literature (although they are still appreciated!). But really, we columnists have got it good. The people a new world — the world of university. It was great. I still remember the first day: A group of seniors helped me who do the real work are people like my editor, Jared Rader, and all the editors before him. These, among others move into my dorms (Athletic dorms! Woot!). Yes, that’s right. Knowing little about American college at The Daily, are the people who spend countless hours sports traditions, I was unknowingly eating my freshman in meetings, at their desks and in their e-mail boxes, answering all of the petty complaints people like lunches among the great titans me have: “Oh, hey, Jared, Jared, make sure you of OU athletics. That was a great put that last paragraph in, all right? K thx bye!” year. I have taken classes that Why anyone would be brave enough to put I met a lot of new friends, picked themselves through something like that voluna major (Letters, for the win!), will stick with me for the tarily is beyond me. and got to complain about how rest of my life, and I have Besides working at the paper, my experience students who passed Advanced met professors whom I at OU has undoubtedly been remarkable. I have Placement tests in high school rewill stay in touch with long taken classes that will stick with me for the rest ceived more college credit hours of my life, and I have met professors whom I than International Baccalaureate after my time here at OU. will stay in touch with long after my time here graduates (fist shake). at OU. Then sophomore year came Moreover, I have enjoyed a great student life on a beauaround, and I started writing for this great paper that you now hold in your hands. Since then, I have had the privi- tiful campus with hundreds of student organizations. lege of writing about a vast array of topics such as fertil- I can confidently say that my time at this university has ity rates, the economy, the benefits of a liberal arts edu- been well spent and thoroughly appreciated. But now I must move on to the next adventure in life. cation, the anti-abortion demonstrations and even my Whether something will pull me back to Norman somehome away from home, Sweden. For the last two years, I have had the pleasure of reading day is left to be seen. However, whatever happens, I will this paper, for better or worse, and also contributing to it. I always make sure to put in a good word for this place. Life looks pretty good right now. I’m about to graduate, I’ve have heard both praise and scorn for the paper. Complaining about The Daily is almost as common as got a job, and best of all, I just got married! Sorry, ladies. I owe a lot of that happiness to experiences at this unitalking about the weather at this university. I’ve heard it all: either the paper is too lefty, too righty, or maybe it’s versity. I hope you get just as much out of it as I have. Best of luck, everyone. Farewell. too focused on evolution, abortion, etc. Take your pick. Those whom I have met that have the harshest criticism for the paper, however, usually tend to be the ones who — Tucker Cross, letters senior have read it the least. I owe nothing to The Daily except gratitude for letting me write in it. The opinion columnists are not paid. We Comment on this column at OUDaily.com

THUMBS UP ›› President David Boren adds 600 free parking spots in August after Daily coverage and student outcry OU (and nearly everyone else) beats Texas Norman City Council declares October Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month Students for a Democratic Society launch a living wage campaign for OU’s lowest paid workers, and the administration increases its hourly wage to $9

THUMBS DOWN›› OU Parking and Transit greatly reduces free parking at Lloyd Nobel Center in August without warning students UOSA fails to generate student interest, evidenced by less than 6 percent voter turnout in the Undergraduate Student Congress elections Voters pass State Question 755 on Nov. 2, banning Sharia law though it’s not a threat Boren’s announces in November that each college should prepare for a 5 percent budget cut due to a lack of adequate state funding

COLUMN

Freshman reflects on 1st semester, transitioning to college It isn’t news that the first semester of STAFF COLUMN LUMN college brings about change. During the last five months, I have beMariah come a completely different person beNajmuddin in cause of my experiences at OU. From the ending of long distance relationships to the new friendships I made here on campus, I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs this semester. Though I expected to learn mainly about my major and maybe become more politically aware, perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve learned so far is the importance of stopping and taking everything in. In the midst of finals, it is easy to be overwhelmed, but the best remedy to any stressful situation is just chilling out and realizing that some things aren’t that big of a deal. Fresh in my mind are the times I fumbled to figure things out, reminding me of how spastic I was even before classes started. My first week at OU, I found myself freaking out about my meal plan. Not knowing the difference between exchanges, meal points and Sooner Sense, I thought for sure I would starve before I figured out which was the appropriate currency at Cate. After a kind upperclassman explained to me the differences, I still failed to get into the swing of things. Caught

Meredith Moriak Reneé Selanders LeighAnne Manwarren Jared Rader James Corley

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Assignment Editor Opinion Editor Sports Editor

up in day-to-day things, I stressed about Whether it’s our religious views, our vote for governor fitting in, finding my niche and the usual or even our major, we’ve all had to question ourselves woes and worries that come with the start and our motives. As we watched ourselves change this of something new. semester, we soon found that we no longer resembled The brief years we spend in college are who we were when we first started here, but if anything, some of our most defining moments. For we are now more ourselves than when we arrived. people like me, the realization of personal So as you sit there stressed about naivety is undeniable. We’re no longer at finals, remember they’re only a home and sheltered by Mom and Dad. big deal if you make them one. For Whether it’s our religious We’re exposed to so many things and, unsome, finals week will be hell, and views, our vote for governor for others, it’ll be cake. No matter fortunately, not everyone has your best interests at heart. or even our major, we’ve all the situation, worrying about finals In those respects, college can be a pain. won’t alleviate anxieties. had to question ourselves Though it can be tough getting your first Ta k e a m o m e nt t o s t o p a n d and our motives. B or scary skipping your first class, we breath and be reassured that your learn from our mistakes and we grow problems, in the grand scheme of from our experiences. If we can take anything away from things, may not be as bad as they seem. This semester this semester, it’s that patience is a virtue and coffee is a has given us all the opportunity to change, and if you find Godsend. yourself still overwhelmed, look on the bright side: it’s We don’t always get what we want when we want it and almost over. the occasional all-nighter is unavoidable. We lose sight of the important things because we’re stressed about a quiz — Mariah Najmuddin, or an upcoming paper, but really, if we had calmed down University College freshman for a minute, we would have realized how non-stressful the situation really is. Comment on this column at OUDaily.com

Dusty Somers Mark Potts Chris Lusk Judy Gibbs Robinson Bobby Jones

160 Copeland Hall, 860 Van Vleet Oval Norman, OK 73019-0270

phone: 405-325-3666

Life & Arts Editor Multimedia Editor Online Editor Editorial Adviser Advertising Manager

e-mail: dailynews@ou.edu

The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.

Guest columns are accepted and printed at the editor’s discretion.

Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed, double spaced and signed by the author(s). Letters will be edited for space. Students must list their major and classification. Submit letters Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Letters also can be e-mailed to dailyopinion@ou.edu.

Our View is the voice of The Oklahoma Daily Editorial Board, which consists of the editorial staff. The board meets at 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Columnists’ and cartoonists’ opinions are not necessarily the opinions of The Daily Editorial Board.

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

EVENT CALENDAR

Finals Week, Fall 2010 • A7

A look at winter events near OU Campus activities Dec. 13 to 18

Dec. 13 to 17: Final examinations week

Dec. 19 to 25

Music, movies, etc.

7 p.m. Dec. 18: Men’s basketball v. Cincinatti at Oklahoma City Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., Oklahoma City

8 p.m. Dec. 16: 2nd Annual Opolis Toy Drive featuring Samantha Crain, Ali Harter, Penny Hill, Sherree Chamberlain, Cody Ingram and John Fullbright at Opolis, 113 N. Crawford Ave. $7 with gift, $10 without

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 15: Waffles for Writers at OU Writing Center, Wagner Hall, Room 280

6:30 p.m. Dec. 17: Hanson with Guster, Ryan Star and Hedley at Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S. Eastern Ave., Oklahoma City. $19 in advance, $24 at door

Dec. 17: December Intersession registration ends Dec. 17 to 19: December graduation celebrations. See page 3 for details.

6:30 p.m. Dec. 18: Hinder with Saving Abel, My Darkest Days and Default at Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S. Eastern Ave., Oklahoma City. $19

Dec. 20: December Intersession begins

Dec. 26 to Jan. 1

Sooner sports

7 p.m. Dec. 21: Men’s basketball v. Sacramento State at Lloyd Noble Center

Dec. 23 and 24: Intersession courses do not meet

9 p.m. Dec. 22: 80s uring alternative tribute featuring The Smiths Jesus and Mary Chain at Opolis, 113 N. Crawford Ave. $7

Dec. 23 and 24: University offices closed

Dec. 27: Intersession courses resume

2 p.m. Dec. 29: Women’s basketball v. Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Lloyd Noble Center

Dec. 27 to 31: University offices closed 7 p.m. Dec. 30: Men’s basketball v. Central Arkansas at Lloyd Noble Center

2 p.m. Dec. 26: 35mm screeing of “The Red Shoes” directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, Okl Oklahoma City. $6-$8. 8:30 p.m. Dec. 31: The Flaming Lips New Year’s Eve Freakout C Convention Center, 1 at Cox My Myriad Gardens, Oklahoma City, $10-$25

Jan. 2 to 8

7 p.m. Jan. 3: Men’s basketball v. Maryland Eastern Shor at Lloyd Noble Center Shore 7 p.m. Jan. 7: Women’s gymnastics v. A Arkansas at Lloyd Noble Center 7 p.m. Jan. 7: Wrestling v. Navy at McCasland Field House

2 p.m. Jan. 2: 35mm screeing of “8 1/2” directed by Federico Fellini at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, Oklahoma City. $6-$8. Jan. 4 to 9: “Burn the Floor” at the Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., Oklahoma City. Tickets $16-$51.

3 p.m. Jan. 8: Men’s basketball v. Texas A at Lloyd Noble Center A&M

Jan. 9 to 15

Jan. 14: December Intersession ends

7 p.m. Jan. 10: Hockey v. Arizona State at Blazers Ice Centre, Oklahoma City p Jan. 11: Hockey v. Arizona State at 7 p.m. Bla Ice Centre, Oklahoma City Blazers 7 p.m. Jan. 12: Women’s basketball v. Kansas State at Lloyd Noble Center

Jan. 17: Campus closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Jan. 16 to 22

Dec. 16 to 22: “The Santaland Diaries” by David Sedaris, adapted by Joe Mantello at the Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., Oklahoma City. $30

7 p.m. Jan. 18: Men’s basketball v. Texas Tech at Lloyd Noble Center

Jan. 18: Spring classes begin 7 p.m. Jan. 19: Women’s basketball v. Texas Tech at Lloyd Noble Center 12:30 p.m. Jan. 22: Men’s basketball v. Colorado at Lloyd Noble Center 7 p.m. Jan. 22: Men’s gymnastics v. Ohio State at Lloyd Noble Center

Jan. 14 to Feb. 5: “Good ‘N’ Plenty” by Jeffrey Hatcher, Carpenter Square Theatre at Bricktown Hotel and Convention Center, 2001 E. Reno Ave. Tickets $18. 7 p.m. Jan. 15: George Strait tire and Lee with Reba McEntire Ann Womack at The Oklahoma City Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., Oklahoma City. $79.50$89.50

9 p.m. Jan. 21: Deerpeople at Opolis, 113 N. Crawford Ave. Ticket price TBD.

A8 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

COMMENTARY

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

Finals Week, Fall 2010 • A9

Editor’s note: This is Mark Potts’ satirical account of his time at OU and as a Daily staff member. His thoughts do not represent those of the Daily, just a confused college student who looks like George Clooney. n 2003, a young man became the chosen one after being caught in a battle between good (playing video games) and evil (his parents’ desire for him to do more than play video games). He was left scared and would forever have to bare the burden of looking like George Clooney. So begins the sage of Mark Potts’ journey to the magical University of Oklahoma. This seven-year journey is an epic, sprawling and magical journey of love, loss and self-discovery. Will he survive? Can he beat the evil high education wizard known as actually finishing? Will he become a man (I did finally grow chest hair!) or a woman (crazy party!) or will he perish to the evils of college (ridiculous fees)?

Year One: Mark Potts and the World Anew I was excited about higher education! And the meal points! The first order of business was for me to be sorted into a house on campus. I put the hat on my head and it came out yelling, “WALKER TOWER!” Walker was my dream, right from the moment I was told I would live in Walker. I enjoyed my classes at school, rarely skipping (what a loser!) and never tardy (seriously, loser). Sadly, I was forced to take a math class, even though my major didn’t require math. This was my first glimpse into an evil that I would have to face in years to come: pointless pre-requisite classes. I struggled with loneliness. I had to watch my friends go on dates and mingle with women, while I simply pined for a woman who I had gone to high school with. I never had the nerve to ask her out in high school because I am a huge, huge bitch who is afraid of anything with a vagina. But then one day, during Intro to Mass Communication, that girl passed me a note

at the end of class (true story). I raced back to my dorm room in excitement. I flung the door open and showed my roommate the note, then framed it (sadly, this is true). I passed her a note during the next class, but nothing came of it. I wondered if I said something wrong, ate a lot of Twinkies, played NCAA Football 2004 and moped. And since I was underage, I didn’t drink (wink!) I used my sadness for creative ends. I wrote humor columns for the Sooner Information Network and made my first short film about a guy trying to get a girl (how original!) I also decided to stop writing really emo things on my Xanga account and instead, pay more attention to this new thing called Facebook. I was one of the first OU people to join and I just thought that was neat! So, with hope in my broken heart, I finished my first year of college. Who knew a man who looked identical to George Clooney would have this much problem find a girlfriend?

Year Two: Mark Potts and the Chamber of Love I had a quiet summer, relaxing and preparing for another year of battle at school. But little could prepare me for what was about to come. My roommate, many of my other floor mates and I moved into apartments at the Commons on Oak Tree, or as I liked to call them, “the apartments where it became obvious most people are annoying loud children who have no respect for anyone else.” As the year progressed, I learned more about the evil of leaving college. See, college is a nice, safe place. You get nice loans that you can live off of. You can work a part-time job and not have to worry much about bills. College is a warm blanket protecting you from the cold world. It was in the spring that my good friend, Cole Selix, and I made our first real short film together, a film titled “Owen’s Predicament.” I played Owen, a guy trying to get a girl that

he loved (again, original!) The film took a while to complete, but it did play at a few film festivals. The filmmaking bug had bitten me and infected me with the poison of storytelling and the delusional idea that filmmaking could be a profitable business venture. Dreams? Delusions? Sometimes the same. But it was toward the end of this year that I met my match in the form of a woman. She was someone he met his freshman year and she caught his eye. I got brave, made a move and success! I finally had a woman who fancied me. It was perfect. The end of this year was magical. I finished with my highest grade point average yet, took many fun filmmaking classes and began working on his first feature-length screenplay. College was truly a magical place! Especially for someone like me, who looked just like George Clooney!

Year Three: Mark Potts and the Prisoner of Ladies The woman destroyed my heart. I stopped doing anything creative. The fall was mostly a blur of depression (annoying depression) and sadness (sorry, old roommates). I kept seeing a commercial for a new video game and I thought it looked stupid. I vowed to never let myself strap on a tiny plastic guitar and play Guitar Hero, but my roommate bought it and I gave it a try. It gave me a shot of adrenaline. I had magical fingers that were quick and skilled and wasted on a video game instead of on the opposite sex. Spring came and I enrolled in my second filmmaking course. This time, Cole and I

were out for more film festivals. Can you guess what we made a film about? That’s right, we made a film about a guy trying to raise money to get his mom breast implants because he was worried his stepdad was going to divorce her due to her lack of chest. Seriously. We also started producing original video content on SIN that received thousands of hits a day. Thank God for this new website that hosted video content called YouTube! Things were great. Then, the woman came back. We started dating again, but I dumped her because I realized I really didn’t like her.

Year Four: Mark Potts and the Goblet of Doubt It should be my final year, but the evil that is college-comfort living is fighting back hard. During the summer, SIN was dissolved by the university’s newspaper. I helped form “The Umbrella,” which would be where we put all our humor articles and videos (or hid it all, which was the intent of the people running The Daily at that time). This year, I took Rufus Fears’ Freedom in Greece and Freedom in Rome classes, where he killed me about 30 times (if you go to OU and Dr. Fears doesn’t kill you, then you’ve

missed out). Cole, Kevin and I started work on a film script titled, “The Stanton Family Grave Robbery.” I also started working at the cookie store in the mall. This is where my metabolism died. I didn’t want to get out into the real world yet. Why would you? The economy is bad. And college? Oh, it looked so good. More loans. More time to spend with friends. How could I say no? And I look like George Clooney!

Year Five: Mark Potts and the Order of Delaying Entering a Volatile Job Market that Scares the S**t Out of Me Since I only had 12 credit hours left, I decided to split them up into two semesters. I had truly lost to evil this time. Most of the fall was spent editing “Stanton” and hoping to God it would play at a film festival somewhere so I didn’t feel like we wasted our time. I also started writing more for the newspaper. But, something happened in the spring. I started pining for a woman who worked at the newspaper, but she was my roommate’s (and good friend) ex-girlfriend. They had only dated about a month, but she was off limits. But I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I didn’t want to upset my friend, so I confided in my good friend, and other roommate,

and he went to my friend and asked for me. My friend laughed, said he cared not, then hugged me. So at a party, I drunkenly started talking to her outside. I slurred my speech, trying to act not drunk and cool at the same time (didn’t work). I asked her if her dad liked NASCAR, and she said he did. I said, “That’s cool, we should get our dads together to watch a race. Then we should date.” And then I ran off. (I swear, that is a true story). A few weeks later, I asked her out and we went on our first date. She must have been pretty excited about dating George Clooney’s doppelganger.

Looking like George Clooney is something I have to deal with every day. It’s not an easy life, but I am determined to live it fully.

During my freshman year, I experimented with my fashions. This one is called, “How to get girls to avoid you.” It was a success.

My son, Gizmo, dressed as Santa Claus.

I spent most of my time in New York City practicing to be a street performer.

Me and White Fire, who is a national treasure.

Year Six: Mark Potts and the Half-Blood Graduate Student I started graduate school in the Gaylord College. I’m not leaving yet. Sue me. The summer had been fantastic. My girlfriend, Hailey Branson, and I had grown closer. “The Stanton Family Grave Robbery” had played at Oklahoma City’s deadCENTER Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival, where it was received warmly by hundreds of people. So, with that success in mind, we decided to make a second feature. This one, “Simmons on Vinyl,” would be shot with no money and everything would be done by myself, Cole and our good friend and now-filmmaking partner, Brand Rackley. We made it during the busiest times of our lives. I was in my first semester of graduate school, Brand was taking 18 hours and Cole had an

10-month-old child. But, we finished the film and it played at more festivals than “Stanton” did and is still playing festivals now. The spring was hard. Hailey started an internship in Washington, D.C. and this was the first time we were away from each other. We were worried it would be difficult, but it was actually pretty easy. When you trust someone, there’s no reason to constantly worry. This was when I started work on my graduate project, another feature film about two lawn care teams battling for control of their town. Hailey received a summer internship with the New York Times, so I found an internship in NYC as well. I had one more year of school and I better make it count. I was looking forward to finally graduating.

Year Seven: Mark Potts and the Fact that, ah, Crap, I Actually Do Have to Enter the Job Market Do I actually have only one more year left? I got engaged that summer to Hailey, which was awesome. (I got down on one knee in a canoe on Central Park Lake. Who has two thumbs and is romantic? This guy.) That fall, I began production on my graduate project, “S&M Lawn Care” while Hailey and I had our hands full at home with our first child: a pug named Gizmo. I’m told he looks just like me, meaning he looks like George Clooney. I worked with Hailey at the newspaper also, a place I grew to love (especially this semester). It’s a fantastic place to practice your writing and storytelling (THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN LEARN IN SCHOOL). I spent most of the spring planning a wedding (I mean playing with Gizmo

while Hailey planned the beautiful wedding we would have that summer.) Summer came and Hailey and I got married. That was one of the best days of my life (slightly ahead of the day “Rock Band 3” was released. It has a keyboard now!) It is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I know being married to George Clooney’s identical twin can’t be too bad either. We both had to go one more semester, delaying true adulthood yet again. This weekend, she gets her undergraduate degree and I get my graduate degree. “S&M Lawn Care” was lucky enough to play at the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival in New York City and at the Austin Film Festival so far. And Gizmo now has his own Facebook page. And so, it ends.

Epilogue: Mark Potts and Family — 19 Years Later Mark exits his flying vehicle and watches as Gizmo, now 21 but thriving fine due to his monkey lungs and robotic legs, runs to him and says hello with the help of new dog-talking technology. Mark enters his home and greets his two sons and two daughters, all of them looking similar to their mother and George Clooney (a dynamite combination). Hailey, with her millions of dollars she has made being a fantastic journalist, has decided to try to save newspapers and continues to print newspapers to this day. Mark reads her articles on his iPad 20 just to spite her. Mark and George Clooney are great friends. They play golf together all the time and talk about how good looking they are. It’s at this time Mark reflects on his epic battle with evil back in his college days. The plan is to go to college, get out in four years, then become an adult. It’s ingrained in us from kindergarten to high school. But who made this plan for us? Plans work for some and not for others. If you got out in four years and are in a good job now? Great. But if you are still in school, not sure what you want to do or who you want to be? That’s fine, too. Uncertainty can be exciting. That’s when you grow the most. What you need to care about is who you

are now. Today is what counts, not tomorrow. You can make plans for the future, but don’t neglect the time you have now. You don’t know if you’ll be given any more. And there will be ups and downs. Lots of downs. We wouldn’t be living if we weren’t constantly in a state of emotional ups and downs. Who wants to be happy all the time? You’ll never appreciate it if you never lose it. It’s the bad times that will help you grow and find yourself. You have to earn happiness. And the bad times are where you do the work. So don’t forget, there is a world outside of you and this campus. Cherish your friends and family. Use this time to experience life. You’ll learn to appreciate the good things and appreciate happiness. And who knows what the real world holds. Is it a bad time to be entering the job field? Sure. Is it scary and unknown? Definitely. But that’s OK. In my last article ever for The Oklahoma Daily, I find it fitting to use words from Bill Watterson’s (the best philosopher I have ever read) final “Calvin and Hobbes” comic: “It’s a magical world, Hobbes ol’ buddy. Let’s go exploring!”

Read Mark’s entire saga at OUDaily.com

A10 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

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SPORTS • PAGE B5

The Daily reviews the 2010 Sooner volleyball season

B1 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

LIFE&ARTS

Dusty Somers, life & arts editor dailyent@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-5189

HOW TO THROW A HOLIDAY PARTY

Deck the halls with naughty costumes, liquor Well tickle my tinsel! You’re done with finals and STAFF COLUMN N so are your friends. Before Caitlin those painfully disappointTurner ing grades come in, take a moment to celebrate another successful semester of pretending to take notes while clicking through textsfromlastnight.com. Whether you’re black, white or sparkly; Jewish, atheist or mildly satanic, ‘tis the season for smothering your home in red and green and referring to whiskey in your egg nog as “festive.” But you don’t want to throw a shindig because — let me guess — you’re on a budget, you have friends who bring dead squirrels to parties and you washed one dish a month ago ... you think. Slow your holiday party hatin’ roll, Scrooge McGrinch! The secret to a truly mirth-filled wintry fete is knowing your audience and knowing how to tell them to suck it if they don’t like your soiree. Here are my top-five tips about how to make your seasonal social a holly jolly jam.

1. XXXmas Costume Contest Why is Halloween the only holiday when you get to dress like a 2-cent sex worker? We all have that tiny plaid dress that you never wear out because it reveals more of Santa’s little helpers than you feel comfortable with. Encourage your guests to make their Rudolph costumes ruder and their Frosty costumes friskier. It will be ho ho horrendous.

2. Snacks on Snacks, Holiday Version Cooking is hard when it can’t be done in a microwave. The MARCIN RUTKOWSKI/THE DAILY best snacks are the ones that require no utensils or clean up. For example, those Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes or a package Life & Arts staffer Caitlin Turner knows the key to throwing a memorable holiday party isn’t found in the amount of money spent, but in of raw bacon (you can call it Carpaccio). Keep it festive with an confidence in one’s own party-planning abilities. Her opinions are her own and do not represent those of The Oklahoma Daily. entire box of Apple Jacks in a mixing bowl with one big spoon. It’s flu season, so follow up every bite of communal cereal with a shot of vodka to kill the germs. punch sure to light up all of your guests like a Christmas tree. 5. Deck the Halls with Crap You Stole from Dollar Tree

3. Beer in the Snow and Christmas Mountaintinis

4. Shaken Present Syndrome

What is the reason for the season? Don’t answer that; instead, head on over to the liquor store and pick up your favorite cheap beer and grain alcohol. I like to arrange my confidence– in-a-can in a swath of white fleece so it looks like it’s fresh from the slopes and ready to get your ass under the mistletoe. Mountain Dew and Mountain Dew’s evil twin Code Red combined with 100-proof anything make a cheerfully toxic

Play an exciting game of Dirty Santa with your party crew, except make them all bring gifts that are actually filthy. People may shake the wrapped packages to guess whether or not they want to open the used adult diaper or steal that bag of moldy Chinese food from their friend. I advise having barf buckets on hand, in case the fun gets to be too much for some people.

Decorating your home for the holidays can get pretty expensive, but a little bit of larceny can go a long way if you know how to make a wreath look like a beard. Start off with something small, like a single candy cane, and then work you way up to the bigger items like the inflatable Santa and Mrs. Claus. Before you know it, you will have the most bedazzled house on the block and a warrant out for your arrest! — Caitlin Turner, letters senior

B2 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

LIFE & ARTS

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

The Daily’s Matt Carney outlines coffee shop etiquette while studying for finals I like coffee. A lot. Particularly, I like to drink STAFF COLUMN UMN it as an incentive to do some writing, which I do fairly Matt Carney ey often as a professional writing major. “Writing the Novel” is a required class in which one writes — you guessed it — a 50,000 word novel in a single semester. I estimate that to have equated to roughly 73 thousand billion million cups of coffee consumed since August. Thus, I’ve spent a lot of time staring at my laptop in coffee shops all across Norman this semester. In fact, I’m doing so this very moment (as I write and very likely, as you’re reading). Here are a few things I can recommend as you flock to Gray Owl, Michelangelo’s, Café Plaid, Second Wind, Crimson and Whipped Cream or wherever else to caffeinate yourself for hours of cramming this finals week.

Don’t expect an assembly line. Coffee shop culture is generally pretty relaxed and unassuming, so do your best to blend in (pardon the pun) by waiting in line patiently and not freaking out when the barista asks how your day’s going. It’s all part of the casual atmosphere, which you will ruin by demanding that the staff hurry up and fix your caramel brulée latte with extra whipped cream.

Don’t be afraid to share a table with a stranger. Finals week is a twice-annual season of profit and severe crowding for local coffee shops, and you’re not helping out by constructing a personal fort of checked-out library books and printed-off o-chem Powerpoint presentations across the breadth of the biggest table at Café Plaid. Minimize the space you occupy and don’t object if somebody asks to join you. You never know, you might meet that special somebody ... who has the answer key to your geology lab exam.

MATT CARNEY/THE DAILY

Top: Barricading oneself to ensure privacy doesn’t jibe with casual, friendly coffee shop culture. If a stranger wants to share a table, don’t be alarmed. Right: By all means, listen to music as a study aid, but be considerate of your fellow scholars who might not appreciate what you consider to be “your jam” overflowing out of your headphones.

Keep your music to yourself. Coffee shop ambiance — a warm mix of indie music, conversation and steaming espresso machines — can often be the most wonderful of white noise. However, all it takes is a particularly loud neighbor or Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s “Push It” to throw everything out of whack, so it’s understandable that you might want to plug into your iPod for some Band of Horses or Explosions in the Sky or some other easily ignorable music. Just be sure in for good measure, you ought to try to avoid the dangers of to wear big containment headphones and/or keep the volume both over-caffeination and the severe internal “cleansing” turned down so you don’t leak all over your neighbors. effect. Too much coffee leaves your fingers too jittery to type, even if you were confident enough to leave the toilet for five minutes to do so. Eat muffins and drink water. Trust me. While it might sound tempting to try to extend your maximum possible study time by downing an Americano with triple the usual amount of espresso and a few sugar packets emptied

Drink it black. It’s for your health. The caloric difference between classic black coffee and a

venti iced peppermint white chocolate mocha with whole milk and whipped cream is exactly 715, according to the Starbucks nutrition catalogue. Such a drink brims with 27 grams of fat and 110 grams of carbs, so you may want to avoid all the sugar unless you plan on exercising it off for a study break. — Matt Carney, professional writing senior

Local light displays brighten up the holidays It’s that time of year, when neighborhoods are brighter and electric bills soar. Here’s a guide to the best light displays the Norman and Oklahoma City areas have to offer.

THE SHOW-STOPPER (72ND AVENUE AND HIGHWAY 9)

see the assortment of holiday lights on display. You’ll see a fun, hodgepodge variety including a football player kicking a field goal and a giant snowman. Also nearby, you can spot a magnificent Christmas tree made entirely of lights in Andrews Park.

Tune into this house’s Christmas display that’s so extravagant, you’ll almost forget someone lives there. The specified radio station filled with Christmas favorites accompanies the light show on beat with each song. If you were just going to see one house this holiday season, this has got to be it.

GLITTERS IN GOLD (VINEYARD — PORTER AVENUE AND NANTUCKET BOULEVARD)

OLD-WORLD CHARM (MCGEE AND MARION DRIVES)

PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ (BROOKHAVEN — NORMAN)

Tucked away in this neighborhood are colorful houses reminiscent of a bygone era. These light displays are classic and are the picture of a Victorian Christmas — if they had electricity, that is.

These Norman homes are known for their grandeur — and the holiday season is no exception. Make the trip out to these exquisite homes on the west side of town to see their Christmas spirit.

COLORFUL CHRISTMAS (MCGEE DRIVE AND TRAILVIEW COURT)

FOR THE FANATICS (FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS — CHICKASHA)

Every color of the rainbow is represented, with a different color to every tree. This house stands out from the rest with its distinct vibrancy, making rainbow the new red and green.

Since its beginning in 1993, Chickasha has been lighting up the sky with its stunning Festival of Lights. With 43 acres of light displays to explore, it’s well worth the 40-minute drive south of Norman to experience this small town’s big-time festival.

The entrance to this neighborhood may be the best part, with the adorable, goldenlit bridge taking you right into a perfect view of the New England-style home complete with a working waterwheel.

MERRILL JONES/THE DAILY

Top: Christmas lights adorn the New Englandstyle home at Porter Avenue and Nantucket Boulevard in Norman. Right: Lights shine bright across Norman.

CHRISTMAS SMORGASBORD (MAIN AND BEAL STREETS) Start out at Beal Street and drive south to

— Margo Basse, professional writing sophomore

BEST OF 2010

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

Finals Week, Fall 2010 • B3

Top films from t he year The Daily’s Life & Arts staff voted on the best films of 2010. Some expected contenders for the list, including “Black Swan” and “True Grit” had not been screened in Oklahoma by press time, which accounts for their absence.

“The Social Network” directed by David Fincher

Fincher’s classically edited and paced film hums along like a well-oiled machine. Propelled by Aaron Sorkin’s tight-as-adrum script, “The Social Network” excels as both a courtroom drama examining the legal shenanigans behind Facebook’s creation and as a character study of creator Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). Eisenberg captures the sly, passive-aggressive nature of the character with a shifting eye and a set jaw, and he creates a Zuckerberg that is wholly unsympathetic, yet oddly appealing. — Dusty Somers, journalism senior

“Never Let Me Go” directed by Mark Romanek

“Never Let Me Go” is a beautiful, haunting and spellbinding drama. The film tells the story of Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield), students living in a seemingly tranquil boarding school that curiously conceals the disquieting truth of their existence. Romanek brilliantly adapts author Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel of the same name, wringing out the concentrated emotions, demonstrating the story’s timely relevance and showcasing a cast with strong Oscar prospects.

As this year concludes, it is difficult to think of a more exciting, dazzling entertainment than Nolan’s sci-fi thriller “Inception.” Innovative, intelligent and gloriously deranged, “Inception” is arguably Nolan’s masterpiece. He takes an intriguing premise about the physical intrusion of the subconscious and injects it with mystery and intrigue, steady pacing and stunning special effects. The film truly is the stuff dreams are made of. — LC

“Toy Story 3” directed by Lee Unkrich “Toy Story 3” proves that sequels can be every bit as imaginative, moving and humorous as their ground breaking predecessors. Woody, Buzz, Slinky and the rest of gang returned for another thrilling adventure, with danger, heartbreak and romance lurking at every corner. With the introduction of some colorful new characters (including Barbie and Ken themselves), clever writing and eye-popping visuals, it’s sure to be a front-runner in this year’s Oscar race for best animated film. — LC

Wright directs a film that is as formally inventive as it is breathlessly entertaining, cementing his reputation as perhaps the smartest comedic director working today. Following the tradition of simultaneously embracing bracin and deconstructing genre conv conventions that he displayed in “Sha “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz Fuzz,” Wright takes on the worlds of com comic books, video games and garag music in “Scott Pilgrim,” garage and a succeeds with visual gags both broad and esoteric. — DS

“The Kids Are All Right” directed by Lisa Cholodenko

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore are in prime Oscar-caliber form in Cholodenko’s heartfelt “The Kids Are All Right.” They play a lesbian couple forced to embrace their children’s desire and curiosity to find their estranged, sperm donor father. The film paints an honest portrait of the modern American family, while remaining consistently intelligent, entertaining and hilarious. The film examines the importance of family, no matter how eccentric one’s might be. — LC

— Laron Chapman, film and video studies junior

“Inception” directed by Christopher Nolan

“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” directed by Edgar Wright

“Greenberg” directed by Noah Baumbach

Bau m b a c h ha s t h e conviction to create thoroughly unlikable characters, and Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is one miserable asshole. Rather than allowing for a script that constantly reminds viewers that Greenberg really means well despite his misanthropy, Baumbach opts for unblinking unpleasantness. The result is a masterful black comedy, imbued with an effective emotional core by Florence (Greta Gerwig in the best female performance of the year), the woman unfortunate enough to care about Greenberg. — DS

“Mother and Child” directed by Rodrigo García

“Mother and Child” is a harmonious marriage of strong writing, directing and acting. The film follows the lives of three extraordinary mothers suffering from loss and abandonment whose lives intersect in interesting and

heartbreaking ways. Absorbingly acted and flawlessly executed, “Mother and Child” touches the heart and the mind, while exposing the painful abyss of regret and the underlying human need for connection. — LC

“Red Riding Trilogy” directed by Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker

A sprawling, dense trilogy of neo-noir noir cr ime films, the he three “Red Riding” films were crereated for British television in 2009 and released theatrically in the U.S. earrlier this year. The three films coalesce to create a magnum opus of corruption, plunging viewers into the dirty dealings that accompany a serial killer investigation. The series never coughs up an easy answer and constantly forces viewers to reevaluate the individual morality of any given character. — DS

“Wild Grass” directed by Alain Resnais A fever dream of a romantic comedy, “Wild Grass” tramples and upends familiar cinematic conventions at every turn. French New Wave master Resnais, now 88 years old, creates a gleefully bizarre and subversive film as he tells the story of the unlikely relationship between a pilot (Sabine Azema) and the unstable man (André Dussollier) who earnestly pursues her. This is exhilarating and disconcerting filmmaking. — DS

THE REST OF THE BEST

11. “127 Hours” directed by Danny Boyle 12. “I Am Love” directed by Luca Guadagnino 13. “Winter’s Bone” directed by Debra Granik 14. “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg 15. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” directed by David Yates 16. “Around a Small Mountain” directed by Jacques Rivette 17. “Shutter Island” directed by Martin Scorsese 18. “Easy A” directed by Will Gluck 19. “Hereafter” directed by Clint Eastwood 20. “Exit Through the Gift Shop” directed by Banksy 21. “The American” directed by Anton Corbijn 22. “How to Train Your Dragon” directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders 23. “Let Me In” directed by Matt Reeves 24. “Mademoiselle Chambon” directed by Stéphane Brizé 25. “Catfish” directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

The Daily looks back at the best albums from 2010 The Daily’s Life & Arts staff voted on the best albums of 2010. The top 25 from that poll are included here.

1. Kanye West — “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (Roc-A-Fella) This was a near unanimous decision, and an unsurprising one at that. It is nothing short of genius, and exactly what Kanye’s been working toward since his humble beginnings we heard on “College Dropout.” This is a culmination of the soul, grandiosity, celebration and stark coldness that had respectively marked each previous effort. From the twisted “Monster” to the poignant “Runaway,” this is a masterpiece, one that could have only been imagined in the wildest of fantasies. — Joshua Boydston, psychology junior

2. Arcade Fire — “The Suburbs” (Merge) Consistency is something to be admired, but to be so consistently great is astounding. It seemed like Arcade Fire was set to stumble after the triumphant “Funeral” and fiery “Neon Bible,” but instead returned with an album of unparalleled beauty and depth. This is a concept album not so obvious in its intent. Win Butler and Co. painted the perfect picture of suburban life: the pleasantly pretty rows of cookie cutter homes (“Sprawl II”) masking the restless lying directly beneath (“Ready To Start”). — JB

3. LCD Soundsystem — “This Is Happening” (Virgin) Where to start? With the monstrous synth riff on opener “Dance Yrself Clean”? James Murphy’s fearless, earnest terrific first try at singing on “I Can Change”? Or perhaps the perfect career-capper that is “Home”? If “This is Happening” isn’t a perfect electronic dance record, then such a thing doesn’t exist. It’s endearing, introspective, catchy as hell and absolutely cathartic to experience live. There’s no question that this record will keep audiences marveling at his abilities for a long, long time.

Weekend’s eponymous debut, with ramped-up exoticness (“Diplomat’s Son”) and pep (“Cousins”) that results in an expansive, worldly wonder. — JB

5. Sufjan Stevens — “The Age of Adz” (Asthmatic Kitty) Talk about your curveballs. On “The Age of Adz,” Christian hipsterdom poster boy Sufjan Stevens discards his banjo for drum machines, speculates on his future instead of his past and drops at least 14 F-bombs, to my count. The backdrop for this album isn’t the American heartland he previously explored on “Illinois” and “Michigan.” Now, Sufjan’s tangled up in the deepest chambers of his own heart, which bleeps and blurps with fading, whirling electro sounds and has invited in a new friend: paranoid schizophrenic artist Royal Robertson. It’s simultaneously terrifying and beautiful and ends on — who’d have guessed? — a dance number! — MC

“Oh, Maker” to speed funk “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)” to “Mushrooms and Roses” trip-tastic psychedelia ... in three songs. Did I mention it’s a concept album? Monáe is one more great album away from international superstar status. — MC

9. The National — “High Violet” (4AD) “You and your sister live in a lemonworld,” Matt Berninger offers on “High Violet,” the lyrics recalling images of willful ignorance first cast by Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place” a decade earlier. With its sonic warmth, off-kilter drumming and brooding mood, “High Violet” is a rock record for grown-ups. Berninger triumphantly moans (somehow it’s possible for him) on “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” sorts through messy relationships on “Runaway” and “Terrible Love” and explains his need for them on “Sorrow.” It’s sad, touching stuff. — MC

10. Local Natives — “Gorilla Manor” (Frenchkiss) 6. Gorillaz — “Plastic Beach” (Virgin) At its core, music is meant as an escape, and nothing took listeners as far away as “Plastic Beach” did. The catchy, pop-perfected singles like “Stylo” and “Superfast Jellyfish” were the initial attraction, but it was the cool, starry-eyed “Empire Ants” and effortless “On Melancholy Hill” that proved all the more invigorating. It’s as sweet and relaxing as a day on the beach, but all the more intoxicating. — JB

7. Big Boi — “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” (Def Jam) For a while there, it looked like Big Boi might sneak out of 2010 with the year’s top hip-hop album by a mile. Then Kanye dropped his “Twisted Fantasy” and everybody lost their minds. Kanye may have recorded a monster, but Big Boi bequeathed to us a pair of grade-A progressive pop singles in “Shutterbugg” and “Shine Blockas.” “Sir Lucious” dazzles after multiple listens, brimming with echo-y ’80s synths and cool-tough club beats (see “For Yo Sorrows”) while showcasing Big Boi’s confident delivery. — MC

— Matt Carney, professional writing senior

4. Vampire Weekend — “Contra” (XL)

8. Janelle Monáe — “The ArchAndroid” (Bad Boy/Wondaland)

When bands rise to prominence at the sort of breakneck speed Vampire Weekend did in 2008, you expect an equally quick burnout and exit. Instead, “Contra” is just as exceptional as Vampire

At 25, Janelle Monáe might just be the second coming of James Brown, if Mr. Brown had achieved proficiency in hip-hop and indie pop during his reign as the Godfather of Soul. Seriously, she goes from madrigal

Mature and assured are some of the first words that come to mind with “Gorilla Manor,” which is funny considering the album is a true freshman effort from a band who had made no more than a squeak before 2010. Confidence comes easy though, when your sound manages to borrow from so many (Band of Horses, Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend) while sounding absolutely unique. “Gorilla Manor” pops like fireworks, and it’s a show you won’t soon forget. — JB

THE REST OF THE BEST

11. The Black Keys — “Brothers” (Nonesuch) 12. Kid Cudi — “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager” (G.O.O.D./Universal) 13. B.o.B — “B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray” (Atlantic) 14. Bruno Mars — “Doo Wop & Hooligans” (Elektra) 15. Best Coast — “Crazy For You” (Mexican Summer) 16. Cee Lo Green — “The Lady Killer” (Radiculture/Elektra) 17. Robyn — “Body Talk” (Interscope) 18. Taylor Swift — “Speak Now” (Big Machine) 19. Deerhunter — “Halcyon Digest” (4AD) 20. Bruce Springsteen — “The Promise” (Columbia) 21. The Walkmen — “Lisbon” (Fat Possum) 22. John Legend and the Roots — “Wake Up!” (G.O.O.D./Columbia) 23. Sara Bareilles — “Kaleidoscope Heart” (Epic) 24. Beach House — “Teen Dream” (Sub Pop) 25. Girl Talk — “All Day” (Illegal Art)

B4 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

SPORTS

OUDAILY.COM ›› Join The Daily’s Bowl Pick ‘Em challenege and check out the sports staffers’ predictions

James Corley, sports editor ddailysports@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666

UTAH STATE » Then — Not a shameful powderpuff matchup, but nothing special either. Prediction: W, 42-3

TEXAS TECH » Then — Who knows what the Red Raiders are going to be like this year in Tommy Tuberville’s system? Probably not different enough to off the Sooners at home. Prediction: W, 49-10

» Now — Who could have foreseen what would happen in the Sooners’ opener? A fourth-quarter breakdown led to a nearly disastrous start to the season. OU won, but it was far from pretty. Result: W, 31-24

» Now — Tuberville still has some work to do at Texas Tech. The Sooners rebounded from the loss at Texas A&M in a huge way at the Red Raiders’ expense, this time sans “Jump Around.” Result: W, 45-7

FLORIDA STATE » Then — FSU’s senior quarterback Christian Ponder will test OU’s secondary, but the Sooners are nearly unbeatable at home. Prediction: W, 38-24

» Now — What a huge response to the Utah State game. The Sooners surprised everyone by completely shutting down Heisman hopeful Ponder and notching their first statement win of the season. Result: W, 47-17 AIR FORCE » Then — After their 8-5 season was topped by the Falcons’ 47-20 Armed Forces Bowl win over Houston, the Air Force gained a lot of national respect. The Falcons are not quite giant killers yet, though. Prediction: W, 45-14

» Now — They nearly were. In another poor showing at home, the Sooners let Air Force — fueled by its powerful triple-option threat — stage a nail-biting comeback in the fourth quarter but held on for a win. Result: W, 27-24 CINCINNATI » Then — The beasts of the Big East are a little less scary without slinger Tony Pike to lead them to another undefeated regular season. Prediction: W, 31-27

BAYLOR » Then — I’m a Robert Griffin fan. Now that he’s healthy again, I expect Baylor to win a lot of games this year. Just not this one. Prediction: W, 36-14

THEN AND NOW In the Aug. 24 issue of The Daily, sports staffer James Corley predicted the outcomes of each game on the OU football team’s schedule. Now we take a look back at what he forecasted and compare it to what really happened.

» Now — What a rebuilding year it was down in Austin. The Longhorns finished 5-7 and without a bowl, and Gilbert threw more interceptions than touchdowns. Still, Texas gave the Sooners a hard-fought game at the Cotton Bowl that went down to the wire. Result: W, 28-20

» Now — I had no idea I was so close with this one. The Bearcats were OU’s first test IOWA STATE out of Norman and might have won if not » Then — The Cyclones have lived in for a late muffed punt. Result: W, 31-29 the Big 12 North basement since Seneca Wallace left, and no one really expects anything different this year. TEXAS Prediction: W, 62-3 » Then — The Longhorns might be looking at a rebuilding year with sophomore » Now — I guess I gave Iowa State too Garrett Gilbert at quarterback, but both much credit. The Cyclones were the only teams always play a little extra scrappy team the Sooners shut out this year, in Dallas. Prediction: W, 24-17 but it was a doozy. Result: W, 52-0

MISSOURI » Then — The Tigers could be contenders for the Big 12 North title and have the luxury of hosting the Sooners, but I’m not real high on Blaine Gabbert or Missouri without a star receiver. Prediction: W, 38-14

» Now — Oops. After sailing to No. 1 in the first BCS rankings, the Sooners were dropped by the Tigers and Gabbert, who found himself a star-receiver-for-a-game in Jerrell Jackson (nine catches, 139 yards, one touchdown). Result: L, 27-36 COLORADO » Then — The Buffaloes don’t have many chances to improve on last year’s 3-9 record, especially not this game. Prediction: W, 35-7

» Now — Colorado didn’t have many chances to score as OU rebounded big from its first loss. Result: W, 43-10

» Now — Fueled by a rage over scrutiny from media and fans about the team’s road struggles, Bob Stoops and the Sooners took out all their aggression on the Bears in impressive fashion. Result: W, 53-24 OKLAHOMA STATE » Then — The Cowboys are probably going to have a very down year, but even at their worst, they’ve found a way to play tough against the Sooners. Prediction: W, 28-10

» Now — Oops again. Who knew the Bedlam game would be a battle for the Big 12 South title? The Cowboys reloaded instead of rebuilt and put together an impressive season, but the Sooners triumphed in what may be the wildest two minutes of college football this season. Result: W, 47-41

TEXAS A&M » Then — Jerrod Johnson and Von Miller will bring everything the Sooners don’t need to this game. The 12th Man has an eerie power to get inside opposing quarterbacks’ heads, and Jones proved last year he gets rattled on the road. Prediction: L, 24-28

BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP » Then — The Sooners (11-1) will face their traditional Big 8 rival, Nebraska (12-0). In this last meeting before Nebraska jumps ship for the Big Ten, the Huskers’ defense pulls out a stunner in the end. Prediction: L, 28-31

» Now — Well, it wasn’t Johnson at the helm of the Aggie offense, and the result was much more painful than I’d thought. OU ran 104 offensive plays, and Jones barely completed more than 50 percent of his passes while throwing a pick. Result: L, 19-33

» Now — The Sooners (10-2) did face Nebraska (10-2) in the conference’s final championship game. Only in this last meeting of historic rivals, it was the Sooners’ defense that pulled out a stunner, giving Bob Stoops his seventh Big 12 title. Result: W, 23-20

SPORTS

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

Finals Week, Fall 2010 • B5

VOLLEYBALL

COLUMN

Sooners gain confidence during underdog season

Freshmen step up for women’s hoops

OU gaining experience, building for future after year with Sweet 16 trip GREG FEWELL The Oklahoma Daily

The OU Sooner volleyball team made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the third time in school history this year thanks to huge opening-round wins. Though the Sooners were swept by the three-time defending national champion Penn State Nittany Lions in their Sweet 16 match Friday, it was the journey that defined this OU team. Few picked the Sooners to win a single game in the NC AA tournament, but the team has become accustomed to being the underdog. It is a role they have embraced and carried all the way to one of the best seasons in school history. Respect is something that has to be earned over time, and prior to Coach Santiago Restrepo taking over the program in 2004, OU volleyball had done very little to earn respect. That quickly changed under Restrepo, who emphasized recruiting. In 2006, just his third year as head coach, the Sooners finished with the best record in school history — 28-6 — and made the Sweet 16 for the second time ever. Restrepo continued to get great players to build the program, including juniors Brianne Barker, Caitlin Higgins, and Suzy Boulavsky. This year, Restrepo landed middle blocker Sallie McLaurin, who was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year. The OU volleyball program has taken some time to build, but it has been built for success — not for just one season, but for the long haul. “ I t ’s a m a z i n g w h a t [Restrepo] has been able to do,” Barker said. “With the recruits that have come in, the program has really been lifted, and I’m just so happy

Everything has gone as expected so far in the STAFF COLUMN LUMN 2010-11 season for the OU women’s basketball team. James Corley orley The Sooners (9-1) have won every game except a matchup against the thenNo. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes on Dec. 5 in Columbus, Ohio. Whitney Hand, the 2008-09 Big 12 Freshman of the Year, hasn’t returned to the court for the Sooners yet after missing all of last season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, but she’s expected to be back sometime over the break. However, the Sooners have continued a tradition of strong freshman production in the first nine games with big play from guards Aaryn Ellenberg and Morgan Hook. The pair will likely see fewer minutes when Hand is game-ready, but it must be comforting to the team to know both will be ready whenever called on off the bench. — James Corley, journalism senior

COLUMN

SUE OGROCKI/AP

Sophomore defensive specialist Maria Fernanda, right, and junior outside hitter Caitlin Higgins, left, celebrate after defeating Tulsa, 3-2, in an NCAA championship volleyball second-round match Dec. 4 in Norman. The Sooners were beat by Penn State in the Sweet 16 to finish the season 23-11. to be a part of that group that on several winning streaks, helped kind of get the pro- but Nebraska, Iowa State, gram over the hump.” and Texas — all ranked in Entering the season, the the top-15 — always proved team was still to be the roadlooking for a set blocks that kept lineup, and more he Sooners I’m just so happy tfrom importantly, still jumping to be a part of needed to find into the top-25. that group that confidence. Finally, on After losing N o v. 1 3 , t h e helped kind of their first match eam earned get the program tthe to Wichita State, statement over the hump.” win that it was O U ’s s e a s o n went as most exlooking for by — BRIANNE BARKER, beating No. 11 perts would have predicted. The Iowa State in JUNIOR SETTER team plowed Norman, 3-1. through every unranked Although the win did not opponent they played, but put the Sooners into the halfway through the season, polls, their play during the the team lost to six ranked season was enough to make teams. them a host of the NCAA McLaurin was coming on tournament’s first and secstrong, garnering multiple ond rounds, and the team’s player of the week honors, own lofty goals were still on and the entire team was the table. starting to click and find “In the spring, the players their stride. that were here said Sweet However, they still lacked a 16 or better was the goal,” marquee win to earn nation- Restrepo said. “For the girls al attention. The team went to set that goal for themselves

and stay focused and accomplish it — what can you say about this group?” OU entered the NCAA tournament with a 21-10 record and home court advantage “I think we wanted it a lot more this year,” senior Sarah Freudenrich said. “It was just a different mindset.” And it showed. The Sooners beat Wichita State — a team that had beaten OU five straight times — and Tulsa to earn the trip to the Sweet 16. Rather than worry about polls or what the experts say, the Sooners have simply relied on each other all season with their own goals in mind, and because of that, OU might not be an underdog much longer. “We finally have confidence,” Barker said. “Nobody expects us to win, but we like that challenge. We have nothing to lose, and we’re just going out there to try to prove everybody wrong.”

Could be a difficult year for men’s team The Sooner men’s basketball team’s fiery start STAFF COLUMN quickly fizzled out. After jumping out 3-0, Jordan Marks OU was held winless at the Maui Invitational and the next two subsequent road games. Although this was much of what was expected of the Sooners in this rebuilding year, there is some hope left. In Maui, OU showed it can compete with the likes of Kentucky, but it just has to work on finishing down the stretch. This could be solved with the discovery of a player that can score at will; OU has yet to find that consistent, go-to guy. Sophomore Andrew Fitzgerald has led the Sooners almost every game in scoring and rebounding, but his points-per-game average could be higher if he completed more around the rim. Freshman Cameron Clark and junior Nick Thompson have not proven they are ready for this level of play. Clark had a double-double on opening night but has since not produced. Thompson, one of the tallest Sooners, plays far away from the basket, limiting his production like Tiny Gallon last season. Coach Jeff Capel will continue to mold this team and find the fluid lineup he can trust, but he may not know until three or four games into conference play. Currently, the Sooners have the worst record of all Big 12 schools, and they were projected to finish 11th in conference. There is still time for them to find a level of play they need to reach, but they’ll need to do so before it is too late. — Jordan Marks, public relations senior

SOCCER

Team made huge strides from last year, player says Sooners make 1st Big 12 Championship game, 1st trip to NCAA since 2003

Soccer season at a glance

TOBI NEIDY

» Record: 12-8-3

The Oklahoma Daily

Passionate. That was the word coach Nicole Nelson used to described the 2010 OU soccer team that finished with a 12-8-3 record, the best finish since the 2005 team recorded a program-best 13 wins. This season’s team was just two years removed from a disappointing 3-15-1 finish in 2008, when the Sooners went through nearly two months without a win. “This team has a lot of passion, and they showed that after going through tough teams in the Big 12 tournament,” Nelson said. “The team’s fight, heart and the way they competed this year are things that separate this team from prior years.” Although the Sooners fell to the Washington Huskies 4-0 in the first round of the NCAA tournamen on Nov. 12 in Portland, Ore., the 2010 team undoubtly left its mark in the program record books. Nelson, a Yukon native in her third year at the helm of the Sooners, led the team to the program’s first Big 12 conference championship game on Nov. 7 in San Antonio. OU was forced to beat two ranked teams — thenNo. 21 Texas and then-No. 6

Palmer leaves record mark on OU program, plans to play professionally

» 5-4-1 conference record good for fourth in Big 12, highest finish in OU history » Advanced to program’s first-ever Big 12 title game

Texas A&M — to advance to the championship matchup against then-No. 10 Oklahoma State. OU fought the Cowgirls in regulation and two overtime periods to a tie. Although the Sooners lost the conference trophy in the penalty kick round, OU’s ability to outlast teams in overtime action at the end of the season is something Nelson continues to value in the team. “We went into the season wanting to win championships, and we got to that point (in conference) this year,” Nelson said. “Although it ended in a tie on our record, I was still proud that we came out and got better everyday.” More than anything, Nelson said this season gave the Sooners confidence. “One of the things we learned this year is that if we show up and play to the best of our abilities, there’s no one we can’t play with,” Nelson said. The turning point of the

NEIL MCGLOHON/THE DAILY

Senior defender Lauren Alkek (6) clears the ball against Francis Marion on Oct. 8. The Sooners finished the season 12-8-3. 2010 season came during the Sooners’ overtime victory against Colorado on Oct. 17 in Norman. After falling behind 1-0 early in the contest, the Sooners rallied behind sophomore forward Dria Hampton’s fourth goal of the season to force overtime action, then senior forward Whitney Palmer netted her ninth game-winning goal of her career to secure the victory. The win earned the Sooners a third-place ranking in the conference and secured a spot in the Big 12 tournament. OU finished in fourth place behind Nebraska due to a

goal-differential tiebreaker, but it was the best finish by a Sooner team in the program’s history. The previous highest ranking was sixth in the conference, earned by Sooner teams in 2000, 2001 and 2003. In regular-season action, the Sooners fell to four ranked teams — OSU was ranked No. 19 and No. 11 during the two separate matchups — but OU topped consecutive ranked teams in the Big 12 championship tournament. After finishing the last six regular-season games with a 4-2-1 record and advancing to the program’s first Big 12

Senior forward Whitney Palmer earned her final place atop a total of eight OU record lists this season. The Plano, Texas, native captured OU’s career-goal record with her 35th career goal in a 3-1 win over Kansas. She finished the season with nine goals and 22 points to lead the Sooners in scoring. For Palmer, OU’s last home game won’t be the last time Whitney Palmer her cleats dig into a soccer field. “My plans for the future are to play for awhile in the professional league,” Palmer said. “The soccer field definitely has not seen the last of me — I love the game too much.” Palmer is the only Sooner to lead the team in scoring and be named to the all-conference team for four consecutive years. Although Palmer aggressiveness in the Sooner attack will be missed next season, Nelson doesn’t feel Palmer’s shoes are too big to fill. “We’re going to miss a great goal scorer like Whitney,” Nelson said. “But one think I like about this team is that we didn’t depend on one person in the attack this past season. You have players like Caitlin (Mooney) and Dria (Hampton) that will be important next season. We also have a lot of youth with good soccer IQ to help us out.” — Tobi Neidy/The Daily

Championship appearance, the Sooners earned an atlarge bid to play in the team’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2003. OU lost in the opening round to Washington, 4-0, but it didn’t take away from all the team had accomplished this season, Hampton said.

“Our team’s biggest accomplishment this year was coming together and playing all for each other day in and day out,” Hampton said. “We let nothing from the outside interfere when it was time to play. We made huge strides from the year before believing we could accomplish anything.”

SPORTS

B6 • Finals Week, Fall 2010

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FOOTBALL

Teams to battle history in Fiesta Bowl fight OU hopes to redeem BCS struggles with win; not underestimating Huskies

Bowl history in Stoops era

AARON COLEN

1999: Independence Bowl vs. Mississippi — L, 25-27

The Oklahoma Daily

The 2010 OU football team has spent all season overcoming stigmas from l a s t y e a r — ro a d w o e s, quarterback play and kicking were all storylines from the beginning of the season through its very end. However, if the Sooners win the Fiesta Bowl against Connecticut, they will have to remove from their proverbial backs a monkey that has hung around for a bit longer than that. Even though OU won the Sun Bowl against Stanford last year, the team has still lost five-consecutive BCS bowl games, including three national championship games, dating back to the 2003 national championship game against LSU in the Sugar Bowl. OU’s bowl history after the 2000 national title win goes like this: three nonBCS bowl wins (2002 Cotton Bowl, 2005 Holiday Bowl, 2009 Sun Bowl), three national championship losses (2003 Sugar Bowl, 2004 Rose Bowl, 2008 Orange Bowl) and two Fiesta Bowl losses (2006, 2007). The 2004 Sooners were blown out by USC in the national championship game at the Rose Bowl, 55-19. Boise State put itself on the map by winning a 43-42 overtime thriller in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl. The following year, OU went back to the Fiesta Bowl and fell to West Virginia, 48-28. In 2008, the Sooners got another shot at the National Championship, this time against Tim Tebow and Florida in the Orange Bowl, but OU lost 24-14. Since coach Bob Stoops has been at OU, the program has returned to prominence after falling off in the 1990s and has had one of the most

2000: National Championship vs. Florida State — W, 13-2 2001: Cotton Bowl vs. Arkansas — W, 10-3 2002: Rose Bowl vs. Washington State — W, 34-14 2003: National Championship vs. LSU — L, 14-21 2004: National Championship vs. USC — L, 19-55 2005: Holiday Bowl vs. Oregon — W, 17-14 2006: FIESTA BOWL VS. BOISE STATE — L, 42-43

NEIL MCGLOHON/THE DAILY

True freshman running back Roy Finch (22) runs against Texas Tech in the Sooners’ 45-7 win Nov. 13 in Norman. After winning the Big 12 Championship, the Sooners earned a berth to the Fiesta Bowl, where the Sooners have lost twice since 2006.

Fiesta Bowl WHAT: OU vs. Connecticut WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 1 WHERE: Glendale, Ariz. WATCH: ESPN and ESPN3.com successful decades of any program in college football, including seven Big 12 Championships since 2000. But just as much as OU has become known for

home wins and conference dominance, it also has become known for BCS-bowl ineptitude, the lone stain on what has been a stellar decade for Sooner football. There is really no favorable history that could indicate OU is destined to beat the Huskies on New Year’s Day. But OU did roll through the end of the season this year. Connecticut did lose four games in 2010. And for OU to lose to an unranked — and, in many opinions, undeserving — Connecticut team would be the ugliest stain of all on the Sooners’ BCS turmoil.

It is unlikely OU will overlook or be overconfident against the Huskies. Stoops, who understands — and often emphasizes — the value of conference championships, has already said he and his team respect what the Huskies have done. After starting the season 3-4, Connecticut won its last five games — all in Big East play — to earn the conference championship out of a three-way tie with West Virginia and South Florida. UConn has only been in the Big East since 2004. Until 2000, the Huskies played in Division 1-AA.

A f t e r t h e 1 9 9 9 s ea so n , Connecticut left that division and spent two years as a transitional team before moving to Division 1-A, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision. Even though the expectations are lower, a Fiesta Bowl win would go a long way in establishing Connecticut’s football program. On the first day of 2011, two programs with very different backgrounds will come together in Arizona to compete for the Fiesta Bowl, and the result could dramatically alter the perceptions of the two teams, regardless of who wins.

The 12-0 Broncos argued they belonged in the national championship game but Boise State drew OU in the Fiesta Bowl. The teams scored 22 points in the final 86 seconds of regulation, including Boise’s “hook-andladder” touchdown. The Broncos knocked off the Sooners in overtime with the infamous “Statue of Liberty” 2-point conversion. 2007: FIESTA BOWL VS. WEST VIRGINIA — L, 28-48

The Sam Bradford-led Sooners had no answer for the Mountaineers’ explosive spread-option offense. Pat White had 326 total yards and two touchdowns, and Noel Devine added 108 yards and two scores. 2008: National Championship vs. Florida — L, 14-24 2009: Sun Bowl vs. Stanford — W, 31-27

The Daily dishes out its own football player awards As other nationwide awards are being handed out this month, we on The Daily sports staff wanted to hand out a few of our own. We collectively formed a census on each award, and hope our picks reflect the key players of the 2010 regular season. Our poll’s poll s results name five players who were instrumental in helping the Sooners to an 11-2 record, the program’s seventh Big 12 Championship title and a trip to the Fiesta Bowl.

Junior LB Travis Lewis

Sophomore QB Landry Jones

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

It’s no surprise Lewis once again led the team in tackles — 99, 53 solo, 5.5 for loss — and had a huge game in the Big 12 Championship, snagging his third interception of the season and the first two fumble recoveries of his career.

Jones completed 66 percent of his passes, up from a mediocre 58.1 percent last year, and will end the season with more than 4,000 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. If you throw out the Bedlam game, he would have only thrown seven picks.

Junior WR Ryan Broyles MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Broyles was once again the star of the receiving corps as the squad’s most consistent player. He led the country with 118 receptions, ranked third with 1,452 receiving yards and tied for fourth with 13 touchdowns. He also rewrote OU’s receiving records — both career and season.

Others receiving votes Most Valuable Player: Unanimous selection

True freshman WR Kenny Stills

Senior DE Pryce Macon

Most Improved Player: Landry Jones, Austin Box, Cameron Kenney Offensive Player of the Year: Ryan Broyles, DeMarco Murray Defensive Player of the Year: Quinton Carter, Tom Wort, Jeremy Beal Freshman of the Year: Roy Finch

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

Stills is third on the team in receptions and second in receiving yards per game. His 713 receiving yards this season broke Ryan Broyles’ freshman record at OU. The true freshman added five touchdown catches among his 53 grabs this year.

After getting no playing time last season, Macon stuck it out and had a huge season for the Sooners, amassing six sacks — three in the Big 12 title game alone. He is the perfect example of putting in the work and finishing what you start.

SPORTS

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Finals Week, Fall 2010 • B7

NEIL MCGLOHON/THE DAILY

Junior wide receiver Ryan Broyles (85) catches the 32nd touchdown of his career against Texas Tech on Nov. 13 in Norman to break Mark Clayton’s school record (31).

THE OKLAHOMA DAILY’S

BEST & WORST OF THE 2010 SEASON With the regular season at an end, The Daily sports staff reflects on the best and worst moments of the 2010 OU football season.

MERRILL JONES/THE DAILY

Senior defensive end Jeremy Beal (center) hoists the Big 12 championship trophy after the Sooners rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat Nebraska, 23-20, on Dec. 4 in Arlington, Texas, earning the program’s seventh Big 12 conference title and a berth to the Fiesta Bowl.

STEVE CAMPBELL/AP

Freshman fullback Trey Millard (33) is held short of the goal line on fourth down in the Sooners’ 33-19 loss to Texas A&M on Nov. 6 in College Station, Texas. NEIL MCGLOHON/THE DAILY

Top: Senior wide receiver Cameron Kenney (6) scores an 86-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Bedlam game Nov. 27 in Stillwater. OU beat Oklahoma State 47-41 to win the Big 12 South Division.

JEFF ROBERSON/AP

A trio of Sooner defenders tackle Missouri receiver T.J. Moe in OU’s 36-27 loss to the Tigers on Oct. 23 in Columbia, Mo. The loss dropped OU from the BCS No. 1 ranking.

NEIL MCGLOHON/THE DAILY

Left: Senior defensive tackle Adrian Taylor (86) is wheeled off the field with an Achilles tear injury during the Texas Tech game Nov. 13 in Norman, ending his career with two regularseason games to go.

COLUMN

Honoring the end of existing Big 12 football lineup

early beloved, We at The Oklahoma Daily have taken this space today to acknowledge the last gasp and deafening death rattle of the Big 12 Conference as we have known it, and the opportunity given it to rise again. But for now, the time of the only 12-member conference in the Heartland has come to an end. Happy trails to you, Colorado and Nebraska. We wish you well, remembering the good times and willfully dismissing the bad. The two of you were among the first to accept bids into this conference in 1994 — nearly two years before the Big 12 would stage its first set of conference games. In the 15 years that the Big 12 existed in its original and untarnished form, Colorado brought a matter of talented football players, coaches and personalities to a conference that was desperate to distinguish itself amongst its many peers and fans. The Buffaloes won their only conference championship in fall 2001 under coach Gary Barnett — a season in which they reached the 10-win mark for only the second time since the inaugural season of the Big 12. That also was the year former Colorado running back and current NFL running back Chris Brown finished eighth in the Heisman trophy voting. But it’s on to sunny weather and a much more agreeable climate for the Buffaloes in 2011. They will join the ranks of a bigger, more influential Pac-10 Conference while the Nebraska Cornhuskers will head north to harsh winters, frozen football fields and the caretaker of two of college football’s most storied programs, Michigan

STAFF COLUMN UMN

RJ Youngg

and Ohio State — the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska will be dearly missed as it had time and time again proven it belonged in the upper echelon of college football schools. The list of Cornhuskers who have given themselves to the Big 12 is as long as it is distinguished. It includes the likes of coach Tom Osborne, Eric Crouch, Dominic Riola, Grant Winstrom and Ndamukong Suh to name five.

The Cornhuskers won two of the first four Big 12 conference championships ever contested, including a share of the 1997 national championship. It is largely because of the early success of Nebraska that the Big 12 not only became credible, but a part of the annual national title conversation, and later one of the six automatic qualifying conferences in the Bowl Championship Series. OU should thank Nebraska, in part, for its 2000 BCS national championship. As the scarlet and cream makes its way north during the offseason, we here in Oklahoma will tip our hats to the only Big 12 North Division champion to win a national title. However, now the Big

12 will be given a much deserved chance to start anew, to create a new legacy of winning national championships and an opportunity to repair the damage done in the summer conference fracture of 2010. Big 12 athletic directors and coaches should come to see this time for what it could be in the future. There will be no more top and bottom divisions to separate the North from the South like an antebellum revival of old wounds being salted and sordid lines being drawn. The void left by Colorado and Nebraska will have to be filled with communication, cooperation and unity. The 10 remaining Big 12 members have a chance to

heal publicly opened wounds and regain the trust they have surely lost from one another. After all, this was a conference that was pronounced dirty, scandalous and broken. There was speculation as to whether there would be a Big 12 Conference at all in 2011. However, years of tightly bound tradition have proven to be thicker than they first appeared. There are centuries of rivalries alive and well in the Big 12 — most of which span as far back as the turn of the 20th century. The Texas-Texas A&M rivalry reaches back to the days of the Dust Bowl and Depression. Back then, football was still a game meant to be played by hard men, and throwing the ball was only for those less-than-masculine sports like basketball. The Bedlam rivalry goes as far back in time as 1904, when Oklahoma State University was still an agriculture and mechanical school and OU was best known for making the state’s most wellknown outlaws the mascot of the state’s leading university. All of this is encompassed in the collective Big 12. Steeped in tradition, grounded in land of ranches and roughnecks, derricks and red dirt; the exalted land of middle American football will remain home to the Big 12. A conference that was once lost to the changing winds of college football will rise again in 2011, born of the Phoenix’s ashes to start a new legacy that this generation of sports fans can be proud to call our own. Rise, Big 12. Rise. — RJ Young, journalism senior

B8 â&#x20AC;˘ Finals Week, Fall 2010

SPORTS

The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

MATT CARNEY/THE DAILY

Sooner football team members celebrate after defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 23-20, to win the Big 12 Championship on Dec. 4 in Arlington, Texas. Daily sports writers RJ Young and MJ Casiano debate whether OUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s season was a success based on fansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; expectations.

Did OU meet expectations this season? No title shot disappoints fans BCS-bound Sooners a success Yes, the Sooners did what was expected program history this year, a feat only a of them by coaches, players and generally handful of schools â&#x20AC;&#x201D; including Michigan, all college football fans when they won the Notre Dame and Texas â&#x20AC;&#x201D; have managed to 2010 Big 12 Championship. But they have accomplish. Simply put, it is next to imposonce again failed the Sooner Nation in the sible to mention college footballâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest way of falling to the wayside during mid- programs and not mention the Sooners. season in regard to the national title race. Bud Wilkinson put OU on the map. Barry Winning the Big 12 Championship has Switzer made sure that anyone and everybecome something of a semi-regular event one who had a stake in college football in Norman, and fans of knew exactly where to find Sooner football have acNorman in an atlas, and cordingly grown accusBob Stoops brought the Winning the Big 12 tomed to being the Big university its first national Championship has 12â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s representative in the championship of the new become something of millennium. Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. a semi-regular event However the privilege of Since 2000, though, watching OU play in a BCS the OU menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gymnastics in Norman, and fans bowl is not why parents team has notched five of Sooner football raise their children to bemore national champihave accordingly come fans of the crimson onships than the football and cream. That is not why team. Who knew that the grown accustomed 81,000 screaming fathers, program supporting the to being the Big 12â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mothers, sons and daughweight of more than 100 representative in the ters make the pilgrimage years of excellence in winTostitos Fiesta Bowl.â&#x20AC;? ning at OU was the other to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium every fall. all-guys team in spandex? Sooner fans expect to I just hope that next win championships. They expect to be yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sooner football team will remember known for supporting the best of the best that they are not measured by how well in all walks of life, but especially in the one their season ended, but whether they won thing many claim that OU does better than a national title. any other college in the country: win football games. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; RJ Young, OU won its 800th football game in journalism grad student

Any time a team goes to a BCS bowl fantasy team to a championship (thanks, game, you can go ahead and mark out fail- Broyles). ing to meet expectations. We even got to see senior running back If you had asked me about four months DeMarco Murray bounce back with a great ago where this team would be at the end season and develop a receiving game that of the season, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have said we havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen before. the team would be fighting And when Murray was out, for a BCS spot and a Big 12 true freshman running But because OU is a Championship. back Roy Finch was provThatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exactly what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ing his worth in his debut prestigious football done, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a season worth season. program, I feel only a appreciating. That, of course, was good few people would say news, because OU fans But because OU is a presthe Sooners exceeded were able to see what next tigious football program, I feel only a few people would expectations based on season â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when Murray is say the Sooners exceeded the fact fans think OU gone â&#x20AC;&#x201D; will look like with expectations based on the Finch as the feature back: will go to the national amazing. fact fans think OU will go to championship every the national championship And staying on the topic every season. of freshmen, wide receiver season. When you look at the seaKenny Stills is a true No. son OU has had â&#x20AC;&#x201D; disregard1 talent who will only get ing the two surprising losses better with experience. at Missouri and at Texas A&M â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the team And if Broyles stays, OU may possess the has looked good in every game, with the ex- best receiving tandem in college football ception of Utah State on opening day. next season. Sophomore quarterback Landry Jones, So with the experience we saw headed who I thought would be pulled by midsea- to the future of a dynamic offense and the son, actually finished with a season worth BCS bowl game that OU is expected to win applauding, and that is an accomplishment against Connecticut, this season has met in its own. Jones even led the team to a top- my expectations, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sure yours, too. 10 ranked passing offense. Junior wide receiver Ryan Broyles was â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MJ Casiano, dynamite in almost every game and led my journalism senior

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