Hurricane Sandy steals the show.

It's probably no surprise that Hurricane Sandy has garnered an insane amount of news coverage in the past few days. It's a huge storm affecting a huge region. But, as my roommate and I are yelling blessings and well-wishes to the people right outside our window, who are boldly braving the storm, I'm wondering: what makes Hurricane Sandy so damn special.

Then, I found this picture comparing Sandy to last year's Hurricane Irene that caused our first day of classes to be cancelled:

Oh.

So, this is why the coverage is insane. Sandy is dominating every news source out there because she's dominating the entire eastern coast. Seriously, you'd be hard-pressed to find a source that isn't covering Sandy. Because, well, you'd be a douchebag not to. On accuweather.com, the weather for Durham on Tuesday simply says, "Tropical Rainstorm Sandy." Sandy even has her own Twitter, where she tweets things like, "I BET Y'ALL WISHIN KANYE WAS HERE TO INTERRUPT MY ASS!" and "SHIT ABOUT TO GET REAL."
As funny as those tweets are, there is also a fair extent of very sobering news. CNN.com reports that the storm could affect up to 60 million people. In Atlantic City, cars are already submerged under water, and many states including our own, have declared states of emergency. By 5 p.m. today, Hurricane Sandy was classified as a Category 2 storm, with winds up to 90mph.
I'll keep all this information in mind as I consider my friend's offer to hole up in the Sercs, a solid 15-minute walk from my apartment.

The Breakfast Club at Portsmouth High School

Portsmouth high school students would be subject to Saturday morning detention, if a new policy created by School Board member Tim Steele is approved.

Steele proposed this policy at Monday evening’s School Board meeting. His policy would force students with disciplinary problems during the week to carry out detention on Saturday mornings from 8 A.M. until noon. This rule is proposed in an effort to reduce the number of in-house suspensions.

“I hope,” said Steele, “that the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules.” The Saturday classes would take place over several weekends throughout the year, and require an annual $3,000 for staffing.

However, not everyone is on board with this proposal. Peggy Bacon, a parent of a PHS student, believes that parents and students alike will suffer from this new policy. “I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference,” Bacon said, “and the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays.”

Lisa Gallagher, a PHS senior, and one of five students who attended the meeting, spoke against the policy. “I think,” Gallagher said, “it’ just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week.”

In-house suspensions at PHS require the student to spend the school day in an empty classroom under the supervision of a faculty member. The students cannot make up the classwork missed for that school day. In 1995, 154 students received in-house suspensions.

For some, this policy is seen as a good change to the rules. “Parents aren’t teaching their kids any discipline,” said Resident Bob Farley, who supports the new disciplinary measure, “so the kids have no respect for rules. Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up.”

Steele stated that this measure was taken to reduce the number of in-school suspensions, which are automatically given to any student caught smoking on PHS property. He believes smoking is not the only discipline problem at the school, but it is by far the biggest.

After 30 minutes of discussion, the School Board voted to table the new proposal until the March 7 meeting. At that time, Steele must return with specific figures on in-school detentions so far this year. 

Killing zombies and building community on the UNH campus

A zombie invasion occurred in Durham, NH, this past week, with over 100 UNH students turning into the brain-hungry creatures as the first UNH “Humans v. Zombies” game of the year came to a close.
Humans v. Zombies, or “HvZ,” is essentially a moderated, glorified version of tag. All players begin as humans, except for one who is dubbed the “Original Zombie.” The Original Zombie must tag the human players, which then turns them into zombies. All zombies must tag a human every 48 hours—an act called “feeding”—or they “starve” and are kicked out of the game.
To add more excitement, humans are able to momentarily “stun” zombies, by hitting them with socks or marshmallows, or shooting them with dart blasters. “The simple task,” says Chris Weed, co-inventor of HvZ, “of walking to class or getting dinner becomes an adventure, and many players are left with a new appreciation for their everyday lives.”
Chris Weed first brought Humans v. Zombies to Goucher College in 2005. Since then, the game has gone viral, and is now played at over 650 universities nationwide.
Andrew Wood, a junior and head moderator of UNH HvZ, has been working to get the on-campus use of Nerf Blasters approved since he began playing freshman year. “Initially, we didn’t think there would be a problem,” he says, “but the previous chief of police was concerned that uninvolved people would see the blasters, grow confused, and report a gunman on campus.” Wood has been collaborating with new police Chief Paul Dean, who has approved the use of Nerf dart blaster for the next HvZ game.
In the Official HvZ Guidelines, there are explicit rules concerning dart blaster safety. These rules state that the blasters may not look like realistic weapons, and must be concealed indoors. Additionally, the blasters cannot be fired near cars or traffic, and the darts should not inflict pain when fired at someone.
Kurtis Sawyer, 21 and a moderator of the UNH game, is especially excited about the approval of dart blasters, asking, “What college kid doesn’t want an excuse to play with Nerf guns?” Sawyer notes that since its first attempts at getting dart blasters approved, the campus-wide game has gained more recognition. “We’ve shown that we are responsible adults who just want to play with children’s toys.”
HvZ began on the UNH campus two years ago, and has had one game every semester since. This year, however, moderators are trying to set up a second game for this semester. The positive turnout of their September game and new approval of dart blasters has encouraged the addition of a November game.
Sawyer states that the game had 140 players this year, a considerable increase from 80 players last semester. The September game served as an advertisement for the November game, he notes, and suspects more people will join the upcoming game.
“I’m kind of terrified, and very excited,” Sawyer says. Though he worries that many students will join for the sole purpose of using Nerf guns, he is excited for the growing membership. Sawyer has been playing for two years, and helps moderate and advertise for the game.
Sawyer has increased publicity for the game this year by putting up fliers and chalking around campus. “I have friends who are RAs this year,” he says, “so I’ve had them threaten to write up their residents if they didn’t sign up for the game.”
However, according to Sawyer, news of the game is often spread by word-of-mouth across campus. Mairi Ellum, a freshman, heard of the upcoming game via the blogging site Tumblr. “It was a great way to meet new people,” she says, “and you have this instant connection with people when you see that they have a bandana and are playing.”
For the player of HvZ, the game is more than just zombie-themed tag. To Samantha Gorski, a freshman and first-time player, HvZ provided her with an entirely new network of friends. “I definitely got a lot more out of it,” she comments, “than I could have ever expected. As one of the mods said one night: Contrary to popular belief, this game is about making friends more than getting brains.”
This is a belief Weed had in mind when developing the game. “It’s inclusive,” he says. “The more people you have playing with you the more enjoyable it is. And if your fellow players aren’t your friends when the game begins there’s a good chance they will be by the time it’s over.”
For Wood, HvZ is one of the best campus-wide social events of the year. Through the game, he has met over a hundred people, and made dozens of friends. “I want to see this game get to the point where it’s running thousands of players,” he adds.  “I want people forming teams, relying on each other, making friends for life.”
Sawyer agrees with Wood, saying that HvZ is all about teamwork and community. He describes the tradition of Zombie Takeover at Philbrook Dining Hall, where all the zombies get food around 10 p.m. According to Sawyer, all the players makes friends in this game, whether human or zombie.
Moderators Wood and Sawyer stay true to the HvZ vision developed by Weed, who believes that the game creates bonds between players.  “Humans vs. Zombies,” says Weed, “represents a way of holding on to our need to have fun for no other reason than to have fun, and a way to give oneself over completely to a social experience.”  

Heartbreaking news.

There were two stories this week that I can't stop thinking about.

The first is this one, which I heard about from my friend:
On live air, Fox News shows suicide of a driver chased by police
Fox News was airing live video coverage of police chasing down a car-jacker, when the man unexpectedly got out of the car and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Even though there was a delay in the video feed, the network didn't cut away fast enough, and accidentally aired the image of the man committing suicide on live television. I watched the video of the newscast, and it is absolutely harrowing. You could hear the fear and anxiety in anchor Shepard Smith's voice as he realized that the whole video was being shown. I couldn't believe that the network made such an incredibly bad judgment call. However, I thought Smith's apology was very sincere, I have the utmost respect for the recovery he made.

The second story, my mom sent me in an email:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/02/sahara-davenport-dead-dies-rupaul-drag-race-contestant-manila-luzon_n_1932080.html
I'll admit, I'm still incredibly sad about this. I'm a huge fan of RuPaul's Drag Race, and so I watched the season that Sahara was on, and she was a very strong competitor. She was so amazingly talented at creating her look, dancing, and being an overall performer. Stories like this one absolutely kill me because I want to know all the answers, but not all the details have been released yet. The cause of her death is still a mystery, and I know I can't be the only one wondering what could have possibly claimed the life of such a young and promising performer.

What's grabbing my attention.

So, I try to check out the news a couple times a week. I usually head to CNN.com, or Google News, or the BBC website. To be honest, I really want to get invested into the stories about the crisis in Syria, or the presidential debates, or the turmoil in Libya. But--and I can't explain why--these just aren't the stories that are keeping my attention. It's these ones:

Man Eaten Alive By Pigs At His Oregon Farm! (Ate Majority Of His Body)

NJ Triple Murder Victims' Kin Gird for Final Trial

Ex-Ala. prof wants to be tried in brother's death

Yeah.

The gruesome deaths and murder trials. 

I don't know why these always fascinate me so much, but it's something I've noticed about myself. Maybe it's the how extreme or peculiar the stories are. These really are things that don't happen every day. Isn't that what news is--change? Or maybe it's the level of disbelief that comes with each story that catches my focus.

I'm obviously going to try to get more involved with the hard-hitting, long-term stories, but these ones will always be the ones I read first.

While other kids were watching cartoons, I fell in love with Matt Lauer.

When I was younger, I would watch the Today Show every morning before school started—elementary school, that is. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been a huge fan of the show. Matt Lauer was probably one of first crushes besides Brian, the boy who sat next to me in my kindergarten class. But Matt Lauer's dashing looks and Al Roker’s witty banter weren’t the only reasons I enjoyed watching the show. Even though I was a kid and couldn’t exactly understand the stories I was hearing, I genuinely enjoyed watching the news. If I can remember correctly, it just felt really awesome following the news like a grown-up. I had no grasp on politics, or the economy, or even why there were so many bad people out there, but knowing what was going on in the world made my little 3^rd-grade self feel pretty spectacular. The first big stories I remember ever “following” were the Elian Gonzalez case, 9/11, and the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. So, I guess that’s where it all started.

Up through high school, I religiously watched the news before school every morning. As school began starting earlier and earlier, I would see less of the Today Show, and more of my town’s local news program (Lee Nelson and Sharon Rose, my favorite local news anchors, FTW). When I came to UNH, I stopped watching the news every morning; it was probably because I had no reason to be getting up that early being the sleep-deprived college student that I am. I did develop a habit of checking CNN.com every day, though. It caught a lot of my friends off-guard. They would look over at me on my laptop and ask, “Kate… are you reading the news?” Hell yes, I am. I guess what it comes down to is that I really like being informed, or at least trying to be. Let’s face it: in my everyday life, I’m discombobulated, I’m unaware of my general surroundings, I can’t manage to wake up on time, I easily lose my belongings, and I’m basically a mess. If I can manage to know what’s going on in the world, then at least there is some sort of stability and organization in my life.

I don’t really know why my friends were so surprised that I surfed CNN for fun, but I feel like it might be because people my age or younger don’t really pay attention to the news anymore. I think that there are a couple reasons for that. For one, I think we’ve become desensitized in a way to the things that are happening around us. A lot of the time, the news is depressing: murders, recessions, career-ruining scandals, riots, injustices, etc. I honestly believe that once you start hearing stories like these over and over again, you stop listening because you realize that these stories are going to keep happening. To get people to start listening, we have to hear these stories in a way we’ve never heard them before, from a new perspective or angle. I think if news stories catered more towards the audience of young adults, they’d be more likely to pay attention. I think this also relates to the idea that people my age don’t pay as much attention is because we’re under the impression that we don’t relate to these stories. It’s possible that a lot of people think that if a story doesn’t affect us directly, or it doesn’t involve our interests, then there’s little point in reading it. I’m not saying this is true for everyone, but it definitely could account for my generation’s decline in interest.

What does this mean for the future of journalism? I think it could mean a couple things. I feel like my generation of journalists is less likely to go down the road of writing for a general paper, and is more likely to write stories for specialized blogs or magazine. There’s a wide range of online publications that cover any specific topic, and it’s become so easy to find a place where you can write about exactly what matters to you. I absolutely believe that there are those who will stick with reporting the news in general, but I think a lot of us are going to end up finding our niches and writing on those.

Personally, my relationship with the news is going pretty strong; it’s been a long time since we first met, but it always finds ways to excite me. I guess you could call it love.