Irrational Fear? - Allison Redmond

Irrational Fear? No.

By Allison Redmond   

I would venture to say that everyone has some sort of phobia that they struggle with. The fear of heights, spiders, snakes, or tight spaces are just a few. Some come from traumatic life events, and others can’t be explained. The phobia I struggle with is Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. I have been terrified of clowns ever since I was a baby.

This fear first developed in my life from a traumatic event when my parents were attending a convention. As part of the convention, a clown troupe was performing and one of the clowns knew my parents. My dad was holding me and the clown came up behind my dad to surprise him. As soon as I saw him I began screaming in horror, and I have never been the same.

This same man came to visit our church in Concordia a few years ago. Thankfully, he was not dressed up as a clown. However, as soon as I saw him, I wasn’t sure who exactly he was, but I knew that I recognized him and had some sort of negative memory associated with him. This was a good sixteen years after the initial incident, but I was still terrified. I began to hyperventilate in the middle of our church fellowship area. Eventually, my dad reintroduced me to him, I calmed down, and I figured out that he is actually a really nice guy.

Some people think that it is funny to tease me about my fear. By this, I mean dressing up as a clown and scaring me, saying, “Hey, Allie! Look at this picture on my phone!” and instead showing me a picture of a clown, or many other creative, horrific ways. IT’S NOT FUNNY. They simply do not understand.

So the moral of the story is that this is actually a serious phobia of mine. If you use this fear against me just to get a good laugh, I will cry. It has happened before. So please, save me the emotional turmoil, and yourself the guilt of making me cry, because it’s not worth it.

Cool & Fun Halloween Costumes - Connor Reynolds

Cool Halloween Outfits/Costumes

By Connor Reynolds

Every year on October 31st the spirit of Halloween is reawakened. We get to dress up, hoard lots of candy, scare people and even pull pranks. Each year though we see those same costumes: zombies, witches, hobos, football players, ghosts and cowboys. Here are some cool and different ideas for people of all ages. Use ideas from this blog and you’ll be the coolest adult at your kid’s Halloween party or the coolest person at a normal party. I don’t really know you, so just keep doing what you want to do.

#1. The Transformer

This can be a great (but expensive) costume for anyone. You won’t have the hassle trying to drive somewhere; you just roll up in this awesome costume, transform and get your candy and leave or in the famous words of Optimus Prime, “Autobots, Roll Out.”

#2. The Silverback Gorilla

You’re at party, but not in a great mood. All you want is that Snickers bar that everyone is getting, but you’re at the back of line. Well, no one is going to fight such a realistic looking 400 lb. ape. So you go ahead and take all those Snickers by force.

#3. Luigi and Mario

Here’s an adorable costume scheme to for little kids or dogs. It’s simple, all you need is overalls, some red and green shirts, drawn on mustaches, and some hats with an “L” and “M”.

#4 Shadow (Black) Morph Suits

This costume set up might make you to spend a little bit more and you’ll need sets of two, but it’s perfect for anyone. So what you have to do is have two people dressing up as the same thing, say football players. They both will wear their football player costume but one will have a black morph suit over his. This will make the person look like a shadow. With the right costume this could turn into a creepy and scary get-up, especially at night.

#5 French Kiss

A great couples costume is the “French Kiss”. No they aren’t just to people making out the whole time. You wear clothing the stereotypical French person wears, a black and white striped shirt, a beret, maybe a scarf if your girl. Then you paint your face with white and black face paint to look like a member of the band KISS.

#6 Mean Girls

A great costume for a group of three girls is dressing up like the popular girls from the movie Mean Girls. Now let me give you some reasons why this a great idea. First, who doesn’t love Mean Girls? (If you don’t I’m going to assume you are crazy.) It’s HILARIOUS! Second, it’s pretty simple, but reason one is the only important reason.

If you get stumped this Halloween keep these cool costume ideas in your head. Because being the person(s) that stands out the most is always enjoyable.

What You Don't Know About Librarians - Mallory Thompson

What You Don’t Know About Librarians

By Mallory Thompson

In my advisory class I work in the library. I also was a library tech last year. During this time there are many things I have noticed about being a librarian.

We eavesdrop on your conversations. Listening to everyone's conversations is how I catch up on what is going on around the school, especially when it is just a few people and me. It is kind of hard not to listen to you talking when it’s the only noise in the library. However, sometimes I don’t want to listen to your conversation. When I was a library tech, it was a good time to get homework done when I wasn’t helping anyone, but when you are being obnoxious and loud it is pretty tough.

When the library gets crazy busy, please tell us what you want. I can not read your mind when you come up to the circulation desk and just stand there. Ask me to recheck your book or tell me you need a Chromebook. When I ask for your name, I have to type it in, so please speak up so I don’t have to ask you, “What?” five times before I can understand you.

Newsflash. We do not memorize every single book in the library. Surprising right? If you want a certain type of book, there are computers for you to look it up. That’s why they are there. When I am busy working the desk I don’t have time to look up a book for you when you are too lazy to do it yourself.

I have also become a pro at unjamming the printer. Everyone seems to think the librarians can fix the printer just because it is in the library. Sometimes it gets hard.

When you ask for book suggestions, please tell me what type of books you like. I will probably have a completely different taste in books than you do, so it’s helpful if you give me an idea of what you like.

Although there are many things to be annoyed about, I love being a librarian and the craziness of it all.  

The Tales of a Benchwarmer - Bryson Johnson

The Tales of a Benchwarmer

By Bryson Johnson

    At a football game there are the starters, who play on offense or defense the entire game. Then there are the players who stand on the sidelines...they just simply stand there.I am one of them. While on the sidelines we are expected to cheer for the team and help them play their best. We encourage them to keep hitting the other team. This may seem easy, but it is really hard to get into the game when you have no chance of playing. SO, while on the sidelines we make our own entertainment. The “entertainment” that we come up with is probably not the most appropriate thing but it keeps us occupied. For instance, if you go to the high school basketball games and you watch Coach Holmes you will notice that he always flings his arms outward and stomps his foot if the basketball players do something wrong. Those movements are the only thing I look forward to at the basketball games.

    Another conversation that happens on the sidelines has to do with Segues. You know; those two-wheeled personal transportation devices?  We imagine all the football players rolling around on the field on Segues and trying to get tackles and blocks.  (It makes me laugh just thinking about it now.)

     Something else that we think is funny is how at the football games last year, Coach Lambert would always throw his hat on the ground and yell. (It was funny until you were the one being yelled at.) Sometimes he would try and throw it again, but it was already on the ground so he would bend down and pick it up and throw it on the ground again:)

    The only time that the sideliners are really into the game is when the score is really close, and sometimes we don’t even pay attention then. The coaches on the sideline always tell us to get it up and cheer and we do….until they walk away and then we go back into our groups and mess around again. Every once in a while when we’re just smoking the other team then they let the players on the sideline play. Then everybody cheers.