SOKA UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SEPTEMBER 2005
1 UNIVERSITY DRIVE PMB B-492, ALISO VIEJO, CA 92656 • TEL 949.480.4391 • PEARL@SOKA.EDU
NOAA / National Climatic Data Center
Mingling with the OC “Behind the big but gentle bouncers at the door, The Sandpiper’s cool Reggae band played modern Reggae sounds tinged with some rock and roll.” Page 8
Fresh Reasons to Attend SUA Four freshmen make history by coming to SUA-AV for the athletic department, an event that is starting to fulfill the hope of more diversity here at Soka. Page 4
A new year, a new Pearl.
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The Pearl From Flab to Fab EMILY FRAUSTO Big Deans on Campus KEN BAXER Hurricane Katrina CINTIA KUSSUDA and ELIZABETH PASTOR Study Abroad, Class and Privilege MICHAEL BIANCO Fresh Reasons to Attend SUA STEPHANIE SAMANIEGO The Oleanders at Ground Zero GIULIANA SCHROEDER Fine and Dandy Like Sour Candy On Being A Girl ELIZABETH KURITA An Internship Experience Breaking Out of My Comfort Zone TOMOMI PARK Mingling with the OC WANDILE MKHULISE Tech Tips CHESTER ONG My Favorite Time of the Month …when Lizzie’s on Her Period MONICA KAWAI
You know, you’ve always wanted your own column…. Don’t miss your chance. This space could be for you: Send in your words or pictures.
The Pearl is looking to add new members to our staff; writers, photographers, layout , editors, behind-the-scenes, all positions and interests wanted. pearl@soka.edu • 949.480.4391
L
et me introduce a new section to The Pearl. I know there are many readers out there who want to create, modify, or tweak things to make life simpler. Well, I’m here to help you squeeze more “value” out of life and the technology around you. Whether it’s helping you make your computer run a bit smoother, teaching you how to print your own t -shirts, or helping you pick out the right headphones; I’ll use my powers of geekiness to find things out for you, and possibly teach you something new. I have a problem. It’s a fear that I’m often too embarrassed to tell people. Sometimes I have recurrent nightmares about this fear. This isn’t any ordinary fear like being abducted by aliens, devoured by whales, or murdered by clowns. My fear is far worse I’m afraid. Imagine going online, you check Sokanet to see what your new assignment is for class. All of a sudden you’re redirected to another website and bombarded with advertisements about soccer nets, male enhancement pills, Party Poker, and how to lower your mortgage rates. The next time you open up your browser, it has a new search bar and opens a new homepage that keeps on coming back after you change it. Your computer suddenly takes an extra minute to start up and Symantec Antivirus pops up saying that you have a Trojan virus or worse, viruses! I lose sleep thinking about scenarios like this. Fortunately, I have been able to avoid this problem from not installing programs of dubious origin and by using Mozilla Firefox. Some tech savvy readers may have already been familiar with it since its conception in November of last year, but others may be puzzled as to what it is. Is it some kind of mythical beast with 9 tails? Actually, Firefox is an open-source web browser, which means you can customize and edit different attributes about it. It is safer; more secure, blocks pop-ups and even ad banners. First, get the free “I like that it’s fast, has no pop-ups, and you can download at www.getfirefox.com. Then install it by clicking on the even stop the ads from showing…. It’s almost like install file. It will even ask you if you want to import your bookmarks taking control of a website rather than it taking confrom Internet Explorer, the browser built into Windows. trol over you.” –Daman Chhikara, Class of 2006 Why is Firefox any different from the other browsers out there? One great feature about Firefox is that it features tabbed browsing. What this means is that you can view several sites within one window, which helps in clearing the clutter on your desktop. Since Firefox is still a fairly new browser, that means it’s still immune to spyware and adware that hi-jack your browser, which are written with Internet Explorer in mind. It also features a built-in pop-up blocker and search bar, which Internet Explorer only recently was able to do with the aid of a Google Toolbar. Firefox’s search bar lets you add different databases such as Google, Dictionary.com, Amazon, Ebay, and Wikipedia to search. So besides these basic upgrades over Internet Explorer, what else can this foxy browser do? One advantage Firefox has over other browsers like Internet Explorer, Opera, and Netscape is that it is completely opensource. What this means is that users have the ability to modify and change the browser’s code to their own liking. This may already seem like a daunting task, but the creators of the program made it simple through ▶ 9
EMILY FRUASTO (EDITOR-IN-CHIEF); MICHAEL STRAND (MANAGING EDITOR); KEN BAXER, MICHAEL BIANCO, STEPHANIE SAMANIEGO, CHESTER ONG (EDITORS); ANDREW REKER, GIULIANA SCHROEDER (HEADS OF LAYOUT); LEILANI HORINO, JENNY TANG, ANDREW WELTY, LEEMA YAMADA (LAYOUT TEAM); JULIE YOSHIMACHI (GRAPHIC ARTIST); KAREN CASTILLA ROCA (BUSINESS MANGER); MITSUKO IKEDA (STRATEGIC PLANNING COORDINATOR); KRISTI GOLDEN (STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISOR); CHELSEA NAKABAYASHI (STAFF ADVISOR); ARMANDO DUBON, SAEED FAKHRI-RAVARI, DERRICK SPRINGER, PAMELA STOYKA, GEOFF WESTROPP (TECHNICAL SUPPORT)
The Pearl strives to emulate slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s efforts to bring out the human side of every story. Following his courageous model, The Pearl opens channels of communication in an endeavour to articulately and respectfully express differing opinions. The contributors to The Pearl report on issues of concern for the campus, the local community and the globe, aiming to unify the campus toward the realization of the mission of Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo
the use of Extensions, which are downloadable bits of code that can “I just trust it more. It’s nice being part of a revochange Firefox to your liking. Since Firefox is open source, there is a lution and taking over a much larger corporate community of Firefox users who are constantly tweaking it to make it empire. I mean if it was just some stupid program do what ever you want. You can download them by selecting Tools that didn’t do much, I wouldn’t get it to just sup=> Extensions => and Get More Extensions. Some popular exten- port it, but Firefox offers superb functionality, sions are: performance, customization, and makes it worth Adblock - blocks advertisement banner images within websites while.” -Sherman Sogabe, Junior Gmail Notifier - notifies you of new emails in your Gmail account Stumble Upon - lets you “channel surf” the internet and rate sites to your liking to give you more similar sites Forecastfox – shows the current temperature and weather forecast in your area from AccuWeather.com To avoid looking like a Firefox fanboy, I must say the browser isn’t without its flaws. Some websites may have an internal application which only functions with Internet Explorer and cannot be viewed with any other type of browser like Firefox or Netscape. For example, Webmail loses some of its customization features when viewed with Firefox. Luckily some clever people have made the “View in IE” extension, where you can right click on a link and it will give you the option to open it up in Internet Explorer. Firefox is also not supported by the SUA-AV IT department, so don’t complain to them about any problems relating to it. Other than that, I personally recommend this program to make your internet browsing a pleasant experience. Hopefully you all have learned a few things about Firefox that may have piqued your interest. Go ahead, try it out, download some extensions and make it yours. If you don’t like it, uninstall it. If you do, tell your friends and family about it and spread Firefox.■ 10