Farmers Market Vs. Superstore

Most people shop at super stores not only for their convenience but also for there prices. The problem is when you go to a super store you are buying mostly processed foods. Your canned fruits are usually soaking in a sugary syrup and most of your vegetables are canned. Granted some people buy the 'fresh' fruits and vegetables in the produce sections of the stores. However, these fruits and vegetables are probably not near as fresh as one might think. Then you have people who are under the illusion that frozen foods are fresh. they tend to believe that it has been frozen 'at the peak of freshness' and there for is just as good as if you would have picked it off the vine. This, however is not the case. In addition, most people who think they are saving their hard earned money by going to a super store are usually wrong. The fact is that people go to the store and they load their carts up with all the food they think they will need. They are not stopping to decide what they might eat int he week or two weeks to come and they are definitely not stopping to think about whether or not it is healthy for them.

Farmers markets, on the other hand, have produce that is always fresh. During the warmer seasons most farmers markets are held outdoors. That is one of the most beautiful things about farmers markets. When you go to one, you are outdoors breathing in crisp fresh air and all the lighting at the farmers market is natural sun-made light. Farmers markets do, however, go inside during the colder months. Farmers markets don't just offer a variety of fresh produce, they also provide homemade soaps, lotions, baskets, etc. They will all camp out and bring there variety of products or jams and then possibly bring there pets. Some will cook pies and others will grow flowers. The great thing about a farmers market is that it makes you slow down. It makes you take time out of your busy day and notice the beauty in the world. You have to think ahead to the next week and say 'what do I want to eat?' This will help you eat more healthy and not waste money on tons of food that you don't even need. If people would just slow down, they would realize that the farmers market it is truly the way to go.

Parents

The last time I checked parents were supposed to raise there kids. Parents, from the day they become parents, have a gene that kicks in that tells them what to do. Some parents just absolutely quit caring about there kids. They care enough that it isn't abuse or anything but the truth is they aren't really paying attention to what their kids are doing. In the town that I grew up in kids got anything they wanted and were always going out and drinking and carrying on. These kids were well underage but no one seemed to care. Cops never seemed to bust parties and if they did certain kids would get off with out any repercussions. Sometimes cops would just let the kids go, and other times they would just give them a slap on the wrists. Parents all either seem to be blind or just don't care. Well I'll tell you what, kids are dying. Drunk drivers are slaughtering innocent drivers and young children while they walk away with barely a scratch and a DUI.

There was a senior in MY class that was an all around good guy. He would talk to anybody and would be the guy that helped you pick up your stuff if you dropped it in the hall. He had lots of plans with the rest of his life. He was going to go to a local college to get some of his general education credits down before he went to Florida to go to Full Sail to study something he loved. A few days before graduation he went to a party. I'm sure that his parents had no idea or they simply didn't care (which I find hard to believe that his parents didn't care). Well there was drinking at the party and he eventually wondered off. I'm being loose with the details because there are no concrete details. To this day nobody knows what happened. long story short, something happens and he died days before graduation.

Now here is your instance of parents not caring or paying attention. A 16 year old guy from my high school was having a hard time with life. He was arguing with his parents yet that was the extent that his friends new. Suddenly he went missing. None of his friends had any idea that he was depressed or anything because he never talked about it. All they knew is that he was arguing with his parents but who doesn't half the time? Well they found him on November 4; he had hung himself from a tree on his grandparents property with a chain. He's gone. Now his parents have to live with that and I for one feel horrible for them. I miss them both. I just wish that parents would know where there kids are.

The internet

Has anyone noticed how reliant our classes are on the internet? Granted most of us spend all the time in the world anyways. We are all always on facebook, myspace, myyearbook, twitter, and on and on and on. However I have become increasingly aware of how much my classes use the internet. Allow be to explain why this baffles me before I go on further. My mom went into the army after high school. Therefore she ended up having me before she went to school. I've watched my mom go to undergrad and more recently graduate school. She went to graduate school in this decade and graduated only 4 years ago. She currently teaches at a community college branch of another college along with her normal work as an IT specialist. All through her classes she always used textbooks and handed in work. Very traditional way of doing things. Now that she's a teacher they more use books and email so still very traditional. Now you have classes that are offered online and of course they are going to use the internet. Well here we sit in an awesome city in a truly state of the art school. In my MATH class I do homework via the internet. I write blogs for this class on the internet and in another class i post in a social networking group in addition to taking all my quizes and test in our schools ONLINE school system. Have we really looked at it? We are completely online. We come to class but do EVERYTHING including handing our homework in! ALL ONLINE. Is this a problem? No, not at all. I'm just simply intrigued.

Getting around campus.

So I love that we have these shuttles on campus that take us from point a to point b. It really is awesome. But the problem is, they are really unreliable. It's not good when you are outside waiting for a shuttle for 15 mins and then the shuttle has to run a whole other route and make you 12 mins late for you next class. The shuttle between the campus center and the IT building makes all of three stops; the campus center, the IT building, and the herron school of art. Bearing traffic, it should take MAYBE 15 minuets to make a loop. They have recently redone the whole idea of the shuttles. So, we shall see if it gets any better. I also wish they went to places off campus. I only live 10 minuets from campus but a shuttle doesn't come anywhere near me. Yes we have the Indy-go bus system but everyone and there mother can get on those buss's and most people don't have enough sense to stay home when they are sick so you get on those busses and its a blob of sickness and then your sick.

One other thing I wish was different with campus was the 'tubes' connect buildings on campus. Granted we have underground tunnels but it taks you forever to figure them out. It's not a big deal to connect the buildings with tubes. It would also be really awesome if those 'tubes' had moving walkways in them to help speed it all up. Hell, lets just make a monorail system that takes us around campus. More efficient and ecofriendly. There you go problem solved.

Parking....The Nightmare

I don't personally drive to school because, well, I don't have a car. However, a lot of the kids I know do drive and they say it's a nightmare. They all try to park at random times during the day and they can never seem to find a space. Most of them would probobly agree that they would resort to this if they could. It's just so frustrating when parking is what makes you late to class every single day. A couple guys and I were sitting on the shuttle talking about the parking situation and one said that IUPUI had over-sold the parking passes by 5,000. No that is not a typo I really said 5,000. It is no wonder people can never find a place to park. There are simply not enough places on campus to park! I really don't know how in the world to fix this problem. If we have THAT many people that need a place to park then maybe its time IUPUI looks into getting some more parking lots potentially off campus and running a shuttle to the lots. However this problem gets solved it has to be done because kids are going to start parking on top of each other.

An Opportunity or a Big Rip Off?

College. It's a huge new chapter in the life of many young adults. Most colleges require that students stay in a dorm room there freshman year. IUPUI is a nice exception to that rule. They have dorms that are for freshman only. They also have campus apartments that are for all the students. You ask most students currently residing in the dorms and they will tell you that they wish they didn't have to move out after freshman year. If you talk to the students staying in the apartments, they think it is the best thing since sliced bread. But what is the truth? The truth is that in the apartments students are paying 700$ or more each month. That is 700$ a student in a quad room with two bathrooms. This is why students are poor! Our establishments are ripping us off! I live off campus in a two bedroom one bath in downtown (roughly three miles from campus) and I pay under 350$ for my part of the rent, utilities and bills such as cable. I hate that I missed out on the experience of living on campus but I simply could not afford that ridiculous rent.

By the way, has anyone thought about how much they spend in chartwells? A person can throw down 7$ a meal easily in there. Look, the point is something needs to change. I understand that IUPUI is a college campus and they have to have money but where are we going to draw the line? We are poor struggling college students and the housing situation and the high prices for food don't help.