Today I had the opportunity to have lunch with Tiphanie Yanique, author of How to Escape from a Leper Colony, a collection of short stories. I took a Caribbean Lit and Theory class last semester in which this was required reading, and the professor arranged for us to meet Tiphanie when… Read full post »

With the fall semester approaching very quickly (classes start on Wednesday!), I have decided that I need to set some goals for myself. Otherwise I might have a year like the last one; I did fine in school and I was relatively happy, but I felt like I was simply gliding… Read full post »

My cat is mental. As I speak, she is alternately sticking her head between my hand and the keyboard and licking the side of my laptop. Normal cats, once positioned comfortably, are content to sit and purr. Kitten (yes, a very original name), on the other hand, never sits still for… Read full post »

In one of my classes, Art of the Printed Book, we recently had a collaborative book project. Each student came up with a fable or parable (written by themselves or someone else), and we used photopolymer sheets for printing. It's a complicated process that I'd rather not explain here, but t… Read full post »

I don't have class today (by some miracle), so I can finally get around to writing this post. I'm only a little late . . .

Ever since I discovered that letters could combine to make words, I've been a voracious reader. Every book I read has some impact on me,… Read full post »

"Hey, do you have the time?"

"When's the next bus come?"

"Sophomore? Well, I'm a senior, which means you have to do what I say."

"Stay away!"

I turn to walk the other direction, and am abruptly grabbed around the waist from behind. I fight back, yelling "No!" and trying to… Read full post »

As I got on the bus this afternoon, I happened to sit next to one of the international students who attend St. Ben's. We got to talking, and it turns out that this young lady (whose name I unfortunately cannot remember) is from Egypt, studying to get her Bacholer's in Psychology.… Read full post »

I had an interesting talk about universal healthcare yesterday. I was on the bus with a friend of mine, and there was that awdward silence when neither person knows what to say . . . he's thinking about going pre-med, so I asked him a loaded question to see what would… Read full post »

Hello, and welcome to my first post on Open Salon! I discovered this wonderful blog about a month ago, having used Salon.com as one of my news sources for quite awhile. Before finding OS, I had never (that I can remember) even read a blog before, let alone thought of writing… Read full post »