Just today I've noticed a certain number of people reading MacNews and grumbling. I've heard people saying how the articles in MacNews..well..aren't exactly that great. I suggest that you have a "What would you like to see in MacNews?" section in the paper (not just this website) so readers could give suggestions about the school paper as a whole. Perhaps you could have a survey of some kind where people could give their approval rating and make a comment.
The feedback from readers is important, because if you just have a bunch of articles no one is interested in, then a lot less people will be reading the paper...
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for voicing your opinions on MacNews. We take criticism very seriously, and we try to improve with help from the suggestions of Macdonald students.
Next week, you can look forward to a "MacNews Survey". We want to know what you like, what you hate, what you want to see more of, etc.
If you really want to make a big difference at MacNews, the best thing you can do is to contribute Thursdays after school in room 114. Hey, it's YOUR newspaper!
Thanks again for your input.
Sofi, ed.
If any OAC students were wondering how the future would hold after June 1998, they should have looked no further than the University Fair held last weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The images of university hopefuls and their parents being pushed into crowded seminar rooms by "student shepherds" symbolizes exactly what the job market has become: a dog-eat-dog environment for obtaining the ideal job.
Try as I did to get out of my house and arrive at the Fair at the earliest, there was already a crowd lining up for the exhibit hall a full half-hour before its opening. It also didn't help that Yours Truly attended eight consecutive 45-minute long seminars in ten hours. Worse, I didn't eat much: the line-up for the catering line was so long that by the time someone had got to the end, they would have missed the next seminar. Indeed, holding seminars for prestigious universities with huge numbers of potential applicants in small rooms didn't help much either.
For most of us, the University Fair was a harsh wake-up call to reality. Rather than showing us the opportunities, it also presented to us the challenges of the "cruel world" that we are about to face. Sure, I'd like to be a professional journalist when I grow up. The comings and goings of a foreign journalist or of an Ottawa insider makes my blood boil. However, most journalists have been cooked on the job market. This has made it very hard for me to pursue my scholastic dreams: I recently dropped OAC Politics in order to concentrate on the subjects needed to get into university. My wants will have to wait.
Unfortunately, our aspirations for the ideal job will have to wait as well. Worse, some of us won't even get that far. As symbolized by an editorial cartoon from The Globe and Mail , we may be stuck with the McJob that everybody hates but which the unfortunate would have to live by in order to survive this "cruel world" of ours.
As a matter of fact, Yours Truly does have a McJob, but not at you-know-where. Indeed, working at Wonderland at a sub-shop may be better than flipping greasy burgers, but for someone whose former colleague is now earning $10 an hour doing secretarial work, I could do better. Indeed, with an engineering father earning more than $50 K a year, I COULD DO MUCH< MUCH BETTER! My father is actually one of the lucky 20 percent who actually loves what they're doing. For the rest of us, though, life after MAC will probably be a struggle.
So if you really want to be a journalist, you ask, why not pursue it? True, I can perhaps spend the rest of my life covering the news of the world. However, it's money that makes the world go round. I may be an idealist, but my dreams will have to wait. Unfortunately, so will everyone else's.
To the Class of '98, enjoy MAC while you still can. Sadly, life after MAC will be no "Fair".
Kathy Tam
There are those kind of people in the world who are smart, those who are funny, and people who are a combination of things. But then you have "those" kind of people who take amusement in the littlest things. Those people who would do something stupid just for a laugh. Well this article is about "those" people.
Here's scenario one:
Picture yourself heading down towards an assembly. You reach the auditorium and realise that the seats are filling up quickly, so you have no choice but to grab the nearest seat available. You sit down thinking to yourself, "Finally I get to miss a period of work and relax." The assembly commences and everything seems fine until you see a ball of paper whiz past your friend's head. Some of your friends think nothing of it but you start to get annoyed as the barrage of papers fly past you. Finally, one hits you in the back of the head and bounces off. Okay, now it's personal! At that moment you could do a lot of things, like turn around and give "those" people laughing a piece of your mind, but you don't want to create a scene, so you throw the piece of paper in the direction it originated. You hear more laughter. While all this is happening you begin to wonder about the harassment policy the teachers are talking about up front.
Scenario two:
You're eating lunch with your friends. This time, a different group of people decide to pick on your friend by throwing things at him. You see no clear reason for this insanity and tell your friend to confront them. Your friend doesn't want to because he is intimidated by the people in the "higher grades". You then think of the harassment policy again.
These two events occured in the same week, ironically during the week that the harassment policies were being presented in assemblies. This was my encounter with "those" people. The people who prey on the seemingly weakless for a laugh. This is what I have to say to you: You may think what you're doing is just for laughs, but others take it seriously. Respect your fellow students and treat them as you want to be treated. Because the next time you decide to amuse yourself and your friends, you may find that the person you throw that paper at next may just use the harassment policy.
Wreck
I gaze at the house
watching the flames rise higher,
higher
like a mother's arms enveloping
her child,
So does the fire, though it does not
protect; it destroys.
Slowly but steadily she crumbles
And I hear the wailing sound
of the fire engine speeding
down the street like a dog
running to save its master.
I look back at the house. Now
the fire has sucked its life out
like a parasite
and slowly she begins to fall
to her knees, with voluminousness
crashes and dust from years that
she had spent standing and
protecting, those who have
thought to take residence behind
her once sturdy walls.
Sprays of water, filled with fury
fly out of pipes
like raging demons that rush to
the rescue of a house that has lost
all hope.
Smoke hisses and fizzles as the
battle between water and fire rage on,
and at last the water proves
triumphant and all that is left of
the once destructive fire,
are glowing embers that sparkle
with the breeze.
Kat.
Did anyone notice that weird hippie guy out near the front of the school yesterday? He was standing at the lights handing these papers out with something that he told me was poetry. I told him that I didn't have time (I was lying of course; he was freaky and I wanted to get away from him as soon as I possibly could). I did, however, manage to obtain a copy of his "poems" and here's a few quotes from them:
Stoopid Head
Two years ago, when I was a "minor-niner", I heard an announcement over the P.A. system which said that auditions for the fashion would be held later that month. One of my friends actually made the cut! Then in May, we all piled into the auditorium to see a nicely choreographed fashion show. I especially enjoyed that night because I won a door-prize! I was so enchanted by the show that that night, I made a resolution with my friend to audition for the fashion show the following year.
Well, last year came and went and there was no fashion show! Who made me break a promise to my friend?? That's what I'd like to know! How come there was no fashion show last year? I heard there will be a fashion show this year. Well, to whoever is in charge of it, I can really work it!!!!!
Fashion shows are fun to watch and exciting to be a part of! I don't want to whine but I WANNA BE A PART OF IT TOO! Oh no...I think I'm going to cry! (sniff!)
CHEEKY:)
I was just informed of something that interested and confused me. A reliable source confided to me that the company Achoonomore, the allergy remedy, is our new school sponsor. I was ALSO told that more and more goldenrod is being put in the quad so us grade 10's buy Achoonomore. May I ask a question? What the hell did we do to them? Having just finished a quad map, and my sinuses going crazy, I am now furious.
What the *&$# is going on here? It's fine that this school needs money, but hitting the grade 10's sinuses is no way to do it!
Finally, I would just like to say, "THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF THE QUAD SHOULD BE ASHAMED! YOU'RE DAMN LUCKY THAT I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO SUE YOU, OR YOU WOULD BE OUT OF A JOB."
Thank you, and remember science teachers: think hard, think very hard.
Furiously,
cuju
Anyone who has visited MacNews Online recently may have noticed a graphic near the bottom of our main page. This "Athens Featured Site" graphic was placed there to show that MacNews Online has passed two reviews to be accepted as a GeoCities Featured Page!! This will give us more publicity, bring our average number of hits up, and give us more web space. Now we can give you even more on MacNews Online.
The One-Armed Men