WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioRandom sh*t we don’t know where else to put
Ever been out in public and see an adorable dog jauntily bounding beside their owner in a snazzy vest with the words “Do Not Pet” on the side? That, my friend, is a service animal.
As someone with a service animal, I thought I’d explain what service animals are, their various purposes and talk about how to properly approach a situation with a service animal.
“There I am—smoking weed in the bathroom of my own house avoiding my mother on the couch!” Sureni Weerasekera quips, the venue erupting in laughter. “That’s crazy isn’t it? The house I bought with my own money.”
I am no exception, my voice joining the chorus that zings through the room. But weirdly, between laughing, I also felt a little like crying.
Daylight savings time has come to its timely close, on Halloweekend no less. While I’m sure many of us enjoyed and appreciated that extra hour Saturday night, there are many more changes still to come.
The days are colder and the nights are longer. The sun is setting earlier and earlier every day and with that comes many an annual affliction. Aside from the flu and getting paler, seasonal depression comes a-knockin’.
Officially referred to as seasonal affective disorder, this silent criminal of good feelings is not an all or nothing affair. There are many ways to combat the seasonal sadness most tend to feel around this time of year and so I have decided to compile a list for anyone in need.
I googled something once
The value of the humanities can be described in a multitude of ways, one in which I’ve adopted is the notion that engaging with culture, communities and the arts, interrogating their forms, can help us better interrogate our own lives in this same manner as the classics and the acclaimed.
So I was crying over the death of Socrates studying for my ancient Mediterranean history class and something stood out to me.
“this charming man”, this charming man you say…
Acclaimed artistry, The Smiths. As I grow up I move from listening to them in nostalgia for my mother’s taste and her adolescent soundscape and now nuzzle my way into the songs.
It’s quite odd to grow with a song, to fit yourself, your narrative and snapshots slot into anothers lyrics, someone else’s life.
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We are officially in the middle of the fall semester. That can only mean one thing: midterms. I can’t speak for everyone, but most everyone I know, present company included, have been drowning in exams, projects, presentations and extracurricular activities. The most prevalent feelings I have observed in myself and others have been stress. That being said, I think it’s high time I did another mental health check in.
With it feeling like everything is happening all at the same time, I want to provide a guide for how to deal with the stress and how to get through this dreaded period of the semester.
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Those who have lived in or near Charlotte, NC know that every fall, popular rollercoaster park Carowinds does their annual nighttime scare program. There’s haunted houses, performances, decorations and monsters everywhere, at least normally. I have personally been going almost every year, if not every year, since I moved to North Carolina. This year, I have been severely disappointed.
Let me explain. In the past, the park would close around 5 p.m. and reopen around 6 p.m. with the scare actors out and ready to play. The park wouldn’t close for the night until 1 a.m. I could leave my house at 5, which was about 45 minutes away, and get there in time for opening, get through ticketing lines and be ready to have fun within an hour. There were three or so haunted houses and mazes along with different parts of the park acting almost like boroughs with different themes. There were very few “safe” places where you couldn’t be scared. Additionally, there have been areas around the park with dancers and there was always a big performance in the front apex of the park where the Carolinas’ meet.
Have you ever heard the saying, “the cameraman never dies?” The phrase is a viral internet meme that Reddit popularized in 2020.
The joke references survivorship bias, a logical error in studies where statisticians only collect data on entities who ‘survive’ their trials, while ignoring those who do not. But for internet-users who enjoy videos of daring stunts and perilous expeditions, “the cameraman never dies” is a comforting mantra to repeat as their favorite YouTubers barely finesse death on camera.
By nature, war memoirs are very similar. Only someone who survives a war can publish an account about it, no?
“Serenade to the Big Bird” is an unfinished WWII memoir written by American author Bert Stiles through 1943 through 1944. He was a B-17 copilot, serving in the 401st Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group for the U.S. Airforce.
On November 26, 1944, he shot down a Luftwaffe Fw 190s before his plane careened into the ground in Hanover, Germany.
I had skimmed past this fact written on page nine. When I finished “Serenade to the Big Bird,” flipping to find more, a chill raced down my spine when I realized that there wouldn’t be.
Pretty much from the middle of September until the middle of November, I have something going on every weekend. I have so many things I like to do in the Fall that I have to schedule it pretty far ahead of time. I thought it might be a good idea to share what I like to do in the Fall so that others might get some ideas.
Some of the best movies have had the best soundtracks. Some of the worst movies have had the best soundtracks too. On the other side of it, there are many songs that I think didn’t have much of an impact and were generally good songs that were then used in a soundtrack. Once there is a visual, cinematic, and emotional context, the song changes completely.
Undoubtedly, many of my readers have likely seen the new “Superman” (2025) movie. I finally watched it the other night. Before I begin my spiel, I have to say I was delightfully surprised and felt a lot of kinship with some of the characters and an emotional connection to some of the scenes.
I went to San Francisco this Summer. We were there for a week and spent most of our time at Fisherman’s Wharf, but we did explore other areas too.
We arrived at night, late, and made our way to a Victorian Queen Anne style Airbnb apartment with two cats, Charlotte and Hazel. We hadn’t eaten yet and were extremely exhausted. We didn’t get to bed until 3 or 4 a.m. Pacific Time.
We allowed ourselves to sleep in, but ended up waking up around 8 a.m. Me and a couple members of my party decided to mosey down to one of the coffeeshops nearby for some breakfast and coffee. We found one called CoffeeShop about a block away from our apartment. Most of us got coffee or tea of some sort and we got four pastries to take home and share. We got a ham and cheese croissant, a charcoal salmon and cream cheese croissant, a pan au chocolate, and an amaretto apricot cruffin (croissant muffin). My personal favorites were the salmon croissant and the cruffin, both of which we would order again later in the week.