By Mari Pothier | gargoyle@flagler.edu

So we’ve all heard about it. Sean Payton being suspended for a year in regards to the bounty scandals plaguing his New Orleans Saints team. What I don’t understand is why Payton and the other coaches and players involved in the bounty scandal are not being expelled from the NFL and brought up on criminal charges for their behavior.

By Ryan Buffa | gargoyle@flagler.edu

They say a picture says a thousand words, and the Kony 2012 video has everyone talking.

By Phil Grech | gargoyle@flagler.edu

I came home on a rather warm first day of spring, opened the fridge, and poured a glass of water from my Brita water filter.  I put the water back in the fridge, but my reckless, Dionysian passions do not always allow me to place the water back in the fridge gently. Sometimes I thrust it back in the fridge as though I were doing it against the water’s will. As a result, water spills on the floor of the fridge and I get around every year or so to wiping it up.

By Elin Karlsson | gargoyle@flagler.edu

You hear it all the time. It is like a buzzing sound that never seems to go away. Networking, meet the right people. Every one is talking about it, teachers, co-workers, students, friends and family. Network, because it is not what you know, it is who you know.

By {Jaycob Ammerman} | gargoyle@flagler.edu

BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ … “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.”

I really hate waking up to my alarm clock, especially at 5:30 in the morning, but waking up to the great James Taylor made it just a little bit better.

Today, though, was not just an ordinary day. I didn’t really care what time it was.

It was the day where I would witness the world’s biggest spectacle of racing and rednecks — the Daytona 500.

We’re in a heated primary in this country for the presidential nomination.

We’ve got a candidate that is inevitably going to be the party’s candidate despite little support from his actual party. He’s a completely white bread candidate from Massachusetts, is incredibly loaded and comes off awkwardly at campaign events. His main competition appeals to the common man, is quick to bring up his blue-collar roots, and has a serious passion for sweaters.

Wait, when the hell did it become 2004 again?

By Amber James | gargoyle@flagler.edu

She was tall and blonde with long legs, a great chest and flawless skin. I watched as she strutted her way from our line in front of the scouts. They too were watching her like a hawk. Some scribbled down notes, others concentrated on her steps.

It was ‘us’ against ‘them.’ We all loved to hate them. They were too uppity, too northern, too trendy, too gay. But we all wanted to be part of their world– the modeling world.

By Phil Grech | gargoyle@flagler.edu

In the fall of 2011, I sought out a printer to print a collection of short stories I had written. The collection was entitled “Iambic Pentagram,” and contained a dozen short stories and essays, mostly satirical and humorous social insights and observations. One of the essays was called “Why I am an Atheist.”

By Jordan Novick | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Dear Fellow 20-Somethings,

Does the idea of growing up totally freak you out?

Well, don’t worry. You are not alone. The rest of us are terrified too.

So much so, that we are delaying the process all together. And since we can’t actually stop time (It’s inevitable, aging another year will actually occur. That is, unless you happen to be Benjamin Button or Demi Moore) we are doing the next best thing — simply refusing to become adults.

By Tiffanie Reynolds | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Looking over a table filled with plush Companion Cubes and Portal 2, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead shirts, two other girls and I gasped as the vendor slid a plush space core into a cardboard box. “Sorry,” he said, looking over at us with an amused smirk, “this won’t be on sale for another couple months.” As if on cue, the three of us “aw”ed in disappointment—even our shoulders slumped at the same time—and the two girls left while I stayed, deciding between buying the Portal 2 shirt I held in my hand or the one featuring Left 4 Dead on the other end of the table.

By Amber James | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Lazy rivers, 30-foot rock walks and massage rooms. It all sounds like a wonderful spa. But it isn’t a business for wellness; it’s a business for education, an American college or university.

In recent years, colleges and universities have been boosting the caliber of their campuses through ways other than academics. According to a study conducted by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics,  “spending on high-profile sports is increasing at double, sometimes triple, the rate of spending on academics.”

By Phil Grech | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Imagine this: One day you wake up and find yourself in the same position you were the day before that, the day before that, and for that matter, the months before that. You wake up, you have to go to school or work, and you’re already late before you even started. But this day is different and you don’t know it yet. Because this day you find the one you will love forever.

Who doesn’t want that? Perhaps those with deficiencies for true love like psychopaths, cult leaders and those who ascend to earth from the underworld, but otherwise, I think many of us have woken up on Sunday mornings with the hopes and desires of finding someone who will love us for us for who we really are. In turn, we will do the same. We will mutually love that person for the essence of their being.

By Stevie Schenk | sschenk@flagler.edu
Photo courtesy of Apple

Textbooks have always been a difficult part of classes for me. I’ve paid attention, taken notes, re-read material, but I always find the texts difficult to grasp. I’m not alone. Many students feel textbooks are necessary, but wish they could get more out of them. They don’t see the need for a book when a professor is just going to condense it into notes during class.

By Emily Hoover | ehoover@flagler.edu
Photo by Robert Heinrich

Sometimes I think I’m really paranoid. Sometimes I get the fear when I walk into a grocery store, such a deep fear from within, that I want to run back to my car, as if someone is chasing me with a blunt object.

It’s not about the sensory overload I experience when my eyes finally adjust to all the artificial lights and I observe consumers scrambling through the aisles, looking for sales, just waiting for the exchange of currency for nutrients. It’s not about budgeting, since I now live with my boyfriend and our combined income makes good food easier to afford.

The fact is: I can’t buy bagels without staring intently at the back of the package, looking for chemicals and preservatives. I can always locate xantham gum and high fructose corn syrup—oftentimes a combination of both—especially in food marked “All Natural” and “No Preservatives.” So I find myself putting products back on the crammed shelves, hunting for something not just certifiably organic, but really organic.

By Josh Santos | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Winter break is a time for students to relax from the hectic school year — to visit their families and work. But I wasn’t able to accomplish any of these this break and especially not the work part.

Instead, I spent this past Christmas in a home that was rotting from the inside out, 300 hundred miles away from my family, all while searching for a job to support myself.

My first mistake was assuming it would be easy.

By Emily Hoover | gargoyle@flagler.edu

I’ve never been so bummed about getting an A.

This might sound strange, but as a graduating senior with big plans for graduate school, it frightens me to think a pesky little minus might get in my way. And I don’t mean math class. Luckily, I passed both of the mathematics requirements for an English major my freshman year.