BLOG POSTS
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Evergreen Speech and Hearing Clinic blog site: July posts, August posts, September posts
FEATURE STORIES
A new way to worship on campus; Mars Hill Church’s UW services: an act of God or smart marketing?
Hundreds of people crowd into a big warehouse-looking room with dark painted walls and rows of seats from front to back. At the front is a stage, showered with lights of different colors. The backdrop features a 10-foot cross, and when the lights hit it just right, there’s a silhouette of a crucified Jesus draped in ripped clothing hanging from it. But most difficult to miss is the casually dressed, passionate man preaching to the left of the stage, Bible in hand and sermon notes projected onto a screen to his left.
This scene takes place weekly in Ballard. Meanwhile, on the UW campus, the same scene is broadcast in a much smaller room, Kane 130, to a much smaller audience — usually about 350 students, faculty and neighbors of the U-District. However, the man speaking, Pastor Mark Driscoll, presents a message that remains strong, even if heard off of a projection. This increasingly popular setting for college students is held under one name: Mars Hill Church.
To read the full story published in The UW Daily, click here.
Beyond the caution tape
The back seat of a police car is not actually a seat at all; it’s more like a piece of plastic molded into an “L” shape. I was rudely awakened to this fact as I plopped into the back of Officer Patrick Gilbert’s car, realizing there was no cushion to sink into. There are bars on the windows, a plastic divider between me and the driver, and awkward seatbelts.
As I fiddled with my seating arrangements, attempting to get comfortable, Gilbert shimmied open the divider and smiled back at me, saying, “This is an experience; I don’t normally have to talk to people back there.”
To read the full story published in The UW Daily, click here.
Humanizing infidelity
Lust, heartbreak, jealousy, torture, shame — the list of heart-wrenching words that can be used to describe the notorious act of cheating can go on and on. The word itself, “cheat,” is painful to hear. It’s one of the worst — arguably, the worst — tug-of-war games a person can play with his or her heart. But, every relationship at some point feels the worry and insecurity of the possibility of infidelity. Sometimes, even those not in the holds of a relationship worry if they have what it takes to be unfaithful.
The acts themselves can vary; the reasoning behind them surely varies even more. But one thing is for certain: Cheating is something anyone is capable of doing. To make matters more complicated, cheating is such a complex and touchy concept that its definitions will continue to be contested, and there is probably no hope that a true definition will ever be found.
To attempt to theorize on what causes cheating or to create profiles of those classified as “cheaters” is also in the realm of impossibility. But, to provide some insight as to how tangible and relatable the act really is, I will share two people’s stories of their experiences with unfaithfulness.
To read the full story published in The UW Daily, click here.
To hear the audio component of this story, click here.
COLUMNS
Pillow Talk
When just friends just isn’t
Imagine this: You’re sitting in a nice restaurant, a delectable fig and olive tapanade placed atop a table illuminated by dimmed lights, intimately secluded in a corner. Who’s sharing this “romantic” dinner with you? Your longtime friend from high school — his hair slicked back, his clothes clean and proper, his gaze relentless. You realize this isn’t a casual get-together between old friends, as you previously thought; this is a date.
Unfortunately, this is one situation I was not too lucky to participate in a while ago, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been stuck in the awkward hold between the “friend zone” and the “trying-really-hard-to-become-more-than-friends zone” with a close companion. This event, all too common for many, has inspired me to compose a theory about so-called platonic friendships.
To read the full column published in The UW Daily, click here.
To read more of this column in The UW Daily, click here.
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Fusing Borders (**This story won the UW Dept. of Communication’s Kaplan Award for Public Issue**)
Suspended thousands of feet in the air, the butterflies finally catch up to my stomach. The stewardess, now speaking first in Farsi then translating to English, announces to us passengers that it’s time for the women on board to take out their headscarves and cover their hair as we begin our descent into Tehran, Iran. I know that I know how to do this; my mom showed me a million times before she sent us off at the Tucson International Airport. My brother, sitting next to me, shoots over a reassuring smile, as my dad pulls out my scarf from his carry-on and hands over the light flower-covered fabric. Ok, fold it into a diamond, pull my hair back, and pull the scarf over my ears and tie. I wish I had a mirror to look at myself.
To read the full story, click here.
EDITORIALS
Put your playlist on shuffle
I have this peculiar habit of marking the duration of my car trips with the number of songs I can play between my starting point and my destination. I always find the perfect songs to make sure that every minute of my ride is covered. Sometimes, this practice causes me to quickly skip between my favorite songs to make sure I get the entire playlist in before the ride is over.
To read the full editorial published in The UW Daily, click here.
Higher tuition a necessary evil
Tuition is due Friday. Do you know how much you have to pay? Do you know how much you pay each year? How about how much you have paid the duration of the time you’ve been enrolled at the UW? It’s safe to say that for many people, the answer to most of these questions is, “I don’t know.” Yet somehow, even without specific numbers, many people remain blindly opposed to any talk of tuition increases.
To read the full editorial published in The UW Daily, click here.
NEWS STORIES
Departmental cuts straight to student services
As teaching-assistant cuts and tuition hikes claim the attention of the University of Washington community, one issue remains mostly undercover: a significant decrease in student services. The English department – the biggest department within the humanities in the College of Arts & Sciences – acts as a microcosm of the university as a whole, highlighting this issue with the closure of its writing center.
To read the full story, click here.
Being a woman in a “man’s world”
Prominent women in media expressed the pros and cons of their battles for gender equality that ultimately led them to become some of the most influential and powerful women in journalism. They spoke during a conference at Seattle Center this weekend.
To read the full story, click here.
NEWSLETTER ARTICLES
The EPOQ Enhances Driver Safety
On July 1st, Washington joined the five states who have passed a “hands-free while driving” law. This law states that all communication devices used while driving must be hands-free. While the law exempts the hearing impaired, we recommend that to remain as alert as possible while driving, even the hearing impaired should own hands-free devices.
To read the full story, click here.
Summer Fun Has Begun
Evergreen Speech and Hearing Clinic has kicked off its summer fun with special events to celebrate this new sunny season with the community! With a variety of events, the clinic is promoting safe but also creative fun to make this summer a blast for the kids.
To read the full story, click here.
PRESS RELEASES
SoundLoad
Brave New World is announcing that it is continuing its expansion by becoming the Strategic Partner of a revolutionizing music promotional company called SoundLoad. BNW President/CEO Shyan Selah has been named as the newly appointed official spokesperson of the company.
To read the full release, click here.
ACADEMIC WRITING
What is it that drives us to pop in our favorite chick flick, waiting for that perfect emotional plotline to sob along with? What is it that makes us return to our favorite rerun of FRIENDS and laugh along with its familiar simple, comical stories? What is it that has us rereading that frustrating opinion piece in the newspaper, even though all of the claims made in it are against our personal beliefs? Why do we even have a favorite book or movie or song? I believe that it is the underlying feelings that these texts evoke from us that have us coming back to experience them over and over again. There is a hidden satisfaction that comes out of experiencing these common emotion-arousing actions that resonates within us as readers. Without consciously thinking about it, we are constantly craving emotions, and with these texts that we know based on experience will give us that satisfaction, we are consistently dragging emotions out of ourselves, even by force, simply for the satisfaction of feeling them.
To read the full essay, click here.
No Lawyer Can Truly Seal This Contract:
A Look Between a “Read Between the Lines” Deal
Victorian novelists were involved in a strict metaphorical contract with their readers that caused a serious impression on many of the novels that were published in the moral age known as the Victorian era. Novelists knew that the acceptance of their novels was very much based on the reader’s perception of how closely the novel followed these common rules. In this respect, one can expect many novels of the Victorian period to conform to these needs, even if it is against the authors’ will. Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford all display the pressure of the need for novels to conform to Victorian standards through their abrupt, unfitting and unsatisfying endings. Each of these novels, after displaying a wide array of controversial and challenging issues within their plots, end their developing storyline with happily-ever-after endings despite plots that seemed as if they would lead to something much less fairytale-esque. But, with a deeper look into these seemingly happy, yet ironic endings, one can notice that each of these novels is actually presenting underlying sad, and sometimes disturbing, conclusions.
To read the full essay, click here.
