Minds We Meet

Welcome One and All

Back to the Future October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 1

The Voice’s interactive Table of Contents allows you to click a story title to jump to an article. Clicking the bottom right corner CONTENTS of any page returns you here. Some ads and graphics are also links.

Features Minds We Meet: Karlee Kapler – Resonating with Gatsby ...... 4

Articles Editorial: Welcome One and All ...... 3 Back to the Future: The Voice, AU, and You ...... 6 Does Wikipedia Have a Place in Academic Research...... 9 All the Music be Happenin’ Now: Postmodernism in Music ...... 14 See How Far You’ve Come ...... 20

Columns The Not-So-Starving Student: DIY Hot Pot ...... 11 The Creative Spark: Unstuck Studies ...... 16 Music Review: Bliss n Eno ...... 18 The Fit Student: Summers in the Sun ...... 19 Dear Barb: Very Superstitious, Writings on the Wall ...... 22

News and Events AU-Thentic Events ...... 7,8 Women of Interest ...... 10 Scholarship of the Week ...... 17 Student Sizzle ...... 21 AUSU Update ...... 24

Graphic Politically Bereft: The Flag in the Balance ...... 23 2 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

The Voice Magazine www.voicemagazine.org 301 Energy Square 10109 – 106 ST NW Edmonton AB T5J 3L7 LETTERS TO

Email THE EDITOR

[email protected]

Publisher AU Students’ Union

Editor-In-Chief Jodi Campbell Managing Editor Karl Low Regular Contributors Hazel Anaka, Barb Godin Carla Knipe, Scott We love to hear from you! Send your questions and Jacobsen, Barbara Lehtiniemi, Deanna Roney, comments to [email protected], and please Wanda Waterman, indicate if we may publish your letter. Xin Xu

View and articles presented here are those of the contributors and do not represent the views of AUSU Student Council.

The Voice is published almost every Friday in HTML and PDF format.

For weekly email reminders as each issue is posted, fill out the subscription form here.

The Voice does not share its subscriber list with anyone. Even I don't look at it, it's all on auto.

© 2017 by The Voice Magazine

Hey! Did you know the Voice Magazine has a Facebook page?

No kidding! We also do the twitter thing once in a while if you're into that. October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 3

Editorial Karl Low Welcome One and All Perhaps you've noticed something a bit different about the website this week? Like how we're missing a front cover page on the website, or the plethora of pretty pictures providing peeks at the prose within? Or maybe you noticed the little share buttons at the top which will easily let you spread the good bits of this week's issue far and wide. Maybe what caught your eye is the picture of yours truly on the side, and how if you click into that, you can see me wax eloquently about, well, me. But it's not just me, that works the same for every other writer for the Voice that you might find, giving these people who devote so many hours of their time and creative thinking to helping you feel connected to the rest of your AU community some of the recognition they absolutely deserve.

Plus there's the addition of the commenting system, right down at the bottom of the article, we're using Disqus at the moment, because it has some reasonable built in spam and troll moderation capabilities. Of course, to get to the comments, you had to scroll by our related features, so that if a topic interests you, you can see what else AU students have said about it in the Voice in the years previous. This makes all of our archives easier to get to and with almost 25 years of history, that's a lot of writing by a lot of AU students.

As you can guess, we've been working on this update for quite a while. Our previous site was one of the very first content-management systems designed for the web, and with many student newspapers now making the plunge to an online delivery format, it's well past time that The Voice Magazine did some work to keep up with the times. What's been done here has been informed by a joint committee of AU students, AUSU councillors, and Voice writers all doing what they could to design a Voice Magazine that will meet the needs of more modern, internet savvy students, and then interpreted by our web designers at Kobot Web Design, who I really want to give a shout out to for all their hard work, including transferring over some 12,000 articles so that they're all accessible from this one website. They're also the ones responsible for doing something you probably haven't noticed yet, making this site able to shift seamlessly for whatever device you prefer to read on. The future, as they say, is built for you.

So welcome to the new and improved Voice Magazine website![/pullquote] We hope you enjoy the more modern look and more modern features, but one of the new features that you haven't seen yet is our new schedule. Instead of all the stories coming out on Friday, we're going to try putting out a story or two each week-day, whether one of our regular columns, a particularly interesting article, or even just a piece of timely news. Then on Friday, we'll put out our feature story and all the other goodies we've saved up over the week. The idea is that we want to keep you coming back to The Voice Magazine every day as just one of the stops you make on your normal internet travels each day. I'll be honest, we're hoping that having you here more often will make it more likely that you, and other students, start forming a community of students, readers, and anybody else interested in good writing and Athabasca University, here at The Voice Magazine.

But don't worry, we'll still be doing a downloadable PDF version, because I know there are a number of students out there who prefer to just grab and go, but we're currently debating whether the PDF should come out every week, or, with new articles being released every weekday, we should hold off and only put out a PDF every second week. As AU students we all know that information overload can be a very real thing. Now, however, you have your chance to add to this debate by commenting down below.

Once you're done that, have a look around, kick the virtual tires, as it were, and if you find anything that seems wrong or broken, be sure to let me know at [email protected] so that we can take a look at it too. Enjoy the read! 4 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

Recently featured writer for the Voice magazine, Karlee Kapler is a fairly new student at AU working towards her BA with a major in English. She describes herself as analytical, irritable, and creative, and not really an outdoorsy person. One of the surprising few who are born and raised in Grande Prairie, she not only thinks that the bustling city surrounded by deep woods and vast prairies filled with people from all over is worth the stopover on your way to Jasper, but you should stay for the sushi served at Soto Teppanyaki and Fusion Sushi.

What has your academic journey looked like so far? I had previously completed two years of my English degree at the local college in Grande Prairie. I transferred to AU as the Grande Prairie Regional College didn't have the senior level courses in English that I needed. When I transferred to AU, I also started a new job around the same time. I had a bit of a difficult time adjusting to both a new job and working on school part-time through AU. I took me a little while to figure out how to balance everything, but I have finally figured it out --I think.

To be honest, I have only actually completed one course through Athabasca in the last year. I had enrolled in one other class, which turned out not to be for me and I didn't complete it. It has only been in the last 6 or 7 months I buckled down and started working harder on my studies.

In general, the best class I have ever taken in my academic career was one that I took at the GPRC and it was an English class that focused on American literature from the early 20th century.

Which course would you recommend to other English students? I think that any English course that focuses on developing your essay writing skills is crucial for any student, but in particular an English student would find it most beneficial, as well as a great foundation for their senior level courses. The GPRC didn't make it mandatory to take a class in essay writing, there was one available in the junior English class selection, but it wasn't mandatory, and I pursued other junior English classes instead. Now that I have transferred to AU, I have to take ENG 255. Even though I am well past junior English classes, it is a requirement! Which I think is a great thing, and I wish I would have taken it sooner! I struggled so much in the beginning with writing essays, and still sometimes do.

I know, what sense does that make? An English major who struggles at writing essays!

How do you motivate yourself when it comes to studying? I wish I had something romantic and inspiring to say, but I don't. The three things that motivate me to study more are: October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 5

1. How much I have spent on courses 2. Impending course due dates 3. Seeing job listings come up of positions I would have really liked and could have applied for if I was done my degree already!

The latter is one that really gets me though! Seeing a potential job I would have really loved to apply for come up and then slip away makes me want to complete my degree quicker!

What is your favorite book? The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Yes, how surprising an English major that adores The Great Gatsby. Don't roll your eyes!

It is elegantly written and each sentence is perfectly crafted. It also has some of the most beautiful lines I have ever read. It begins and ends with sentences that I resonate with so much. When you feel a surge of emphasis from the first AND the last line of a book, you know what you are reading is something special.

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Have you watched The Great Gatsby film? Yes, there are two and I have seen both. Actually, wait, aren't there three versions? One dating back from the 1920s or 1930s?

Anyway, I have only seen the one produced in the 1970s, as well as the one produced in 2013. Both are so different in the way they were filmed and created. The one created in the 1970s is so delicate, while the one produced in 2013 is so vivid. I had seen the more recent one before I had seen the older version, and the way I had imagined everything while reading the book coincided with the newer version. The older version, I guess you could say, made me feel sleepy. And I don't mean that as it was so boring I fell asleep. I mean the colour usage, the way they spoke, the way they interacted just seemed so subtle. The newer version was jarring and loud and vibrant, and that's exactly how I pictured it while reading. I do really enjoy the newer version, and I found it followed the book so well, the script almost exact to the book. That doesn't usually happen when a book is turned into a movie.

If your life was a novel, what would the title be? The Holiday Armadillo: Being the Ross Geller in Everyday Life

In your article, I loved your statement "A good leader is one that educates." Tell me about a positive leader in your life and how he or she inspired you. I had an English instructor at the GPRC that I aspire to be like every day. She has lived the most fascinating life, but is also so down-to-earth. She is very friendly and helpful to all of her students, and she is so knowledgeable and passionate about what she taught. She always took the time to really help me when I struggled with certain aspects of MLA essays, or to listen when I would approach her and start chatting after class about something when she probably had to leave. I guess you could say 6 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

she always took the time. And it was with all of her students. She was an extremely hard marker though, but I appreciated it.

You are hosting a dinner party and have been lucky enough to invite 8 people that have influenced your life (celebrity or not, alive or dead). Who are the 8 people sitting at your table? My husband, my sister, the English instructor mentioned previously, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Meryl Streep, Emma Watson, and Claude Monet.

If you could bring back one toy from your childhood, what would it be? I don't know to be honest. The few things I loved as a child I still have. I don't have any yearning for anything in particular from my childhood. I kept my Little House on the Prairie box set from when I was a child and it will always have an honorary position on my bookshelf. Some of the books that were my favourite out of that set are extremely worn. I guess if I didn't have those, they would be something I would want to bring back.

Laura Nelson is a marketing analyst by day and a bibliophile by night. She is in her final stages of completing her BA with a major in English through AU

Back to the Future Barabara Lehtiniemi The Voice, AU, and You

"AU reacts to cutbacks and the call for a new mandate". "President's stand on AU's future: Fight cuts with growth". "Advanced Ed. faces $175M cut".

Do these headlines worry you? Relax! Although these are actual headlines, they headed articles published in The Voice almost 25 years ago. AU is still here, and so is The Voice. Both have come a long way since those headlines.

When The Voice began publishing in 1993, it was a maximum 8-page broadsheet newspaper. That's right— actual paper. For the first few years, The Voice was published only four times per year. Five years later, in mid-1998, the paper boosted its frequency to six times per year. By 2001, The Voice was beginning the transition to an online magazine. Moving to an online PDF format that year reduced material costs and enabled The Voice to be published weekly, a frequency it has maintained since that time. Beginning in 2002, articles were published in both html and PDF formats, allowing articles to be indexed and searchable.

This week, The Voice begins rolling out its new online look. Because The Voice was one of the first university student magazines to go to a 100% online format—something some student publications are just grappling with now—its online platform was also one of the oldest. This October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 7 AU-thentic Events Upcoming AU Related Events month, the dated look of The Voice's website will take its place in the archive, along with a stack of Facebook Live Event paper newspapers from almost 25 years ago. Mon, October 23, 12:00 to 12:30 pm MDT Online The Voice is funded by AUSU (which in turn is Hosted by AUSU www.ausu.org/event/facebook-live-event/ funded by a levy charged to AU undergraduate no pre-registration required students.) When AUSU relocated its Edmonton offices last year, staff found some dusty boxes Edmonton Meet & Greet containing copies of the oldest paper editions of Mon, October 23, 5:00 to 7:30 pm MDT The Voice. AUSU generously shared copies of The Craft Beer Market, 10013 101A Ave NW, Voice from 1994 to 2000 with me so I could travel Edmonton, AB back to the past. In-person Hosted by AUSU The headlines quoted at the beginning of this www.ausu.org/event/edmonton-meet- article are from the Spring and Summer 1994 greet-4/ e-mail [email protected] to RSVP editions and represent what was of interest to The

Voice readers twenty-three years ago. Below is a Presenting your work at a conference closer look at a few of the top stories from that Tues, October 24, 2:00 to 3:30 pm MDT year. Online Hosted by AU Faculty of Graduate Studies In an article headlined "Survival strategy: AU fgs.athabascau.ca/news/presentations/ reacts to cutbacks and the call for a new mandate", e-mail [email protected] with your writer Jane Schultchen reports "While all of student number to register Alberta's universities face cutbacks, AU has been singled out for an additional 10% cut over the next AU Open House - Edmonton Tues, October 24, 5:00 to 6:00 pm MDT three years." According to Schultchen's article, Peace Hills Trust Tower, 12 Floor, 10011 - Alberta's Ministry of Advanced Education 109 Street, Edmonton, AB attributed the additional cut to too few students In-person completing degrees at AU, in relation to the cost Hosted by Athabasca University of the university. In reaction, one AU prof www.eventbrite.ca/e/au-open-house- reportedly wondered "does the government fully information-session-edmonton-tickets- understand what AU does?", referring to the many 38409711481 students who take only a few AU courses to Limited seating; register online at above support a degree program elsewhere. link

Later that year, the Fall 1994 edition of The Voice AU Open House - Calgary Wed, October 25, 5:00 to 6:00 pm MDT contained an article headlined "AU proposes South Campus, Bow Valley College, 6th shorter course time limits". That article reports a Floor, 345 - 6th Avenue SE, Calgary, AB proposal by AU's Deans/Registrar Group to In-person shorten course contracts from six to five months Hosted by Athabasca University for three-credit courses. According to that article, www.eventbrite.ca/e/au-open-house- the Deans/Registrar Group was of the view that information-session-calgary-tickets- "such a cut could save the university money, while 38410326320 not negatively affecting the students." Opponents Limited seating; register online at above to the proposal included AUSU (known then as link AUSA), which pointed to increasing demands on

8 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

student's time, and the Canadian Union of More AU-thentic Events Educational Workers, who cautioned that shortened contracts would result in fewer students completing their courses and consequently Alumni and Student Mixer - Halifax becoming reluctant to continue their studies at Wed, October 25, 6:00 to 8:00 pm ADT AU. Celtic Corner Public House, 69 Alderney Dr., Dartmouth, NS In-person In the Winter 1994 edition of The Voice, the top Hosted by AU Faculty of Business story carried the headline "AU Action plan focuses business.athabascau.ca/event-details/au- on recruitment". The Voice's then-editor, Karen faculty-of-business-alumni-and-student- Brown, reported that AU's then-head of Marketing mixer-halifax/ and Communication, Maxim Jean-Louis, saw register online by October 23 at above recruiting and retaining students as one of the link major strategies to shore up AU's shrinking resources. According to the article, Jean-Louis suggested the plan "will refocus the attention of Wikipedia and Academic Research AU staff on recruitment and retention. Webinar Centralized registration and course materials Thurs October 26, 5:00 to 6:00 pm MDT distribution will free up staff time to deal directly Online with students, to advise, inform, and market AU Hosted by AU Library courses." Included in the action plan was a scheme library.athabascau.ca/orientations.html no pre-registration required to phone up—at a rate of 1000 to 1500 per

month—potential, current, and former students. Facebook Live Event Despite the gloomy-sounding headlines of 1994, Fri, October 27, 4:00 to 4:30 pm MDT twenty-three years later AU is still here. It's true Online that the university is facing financial and Hosted by AUSU existential challenges again—or still—but it's also www.ausu.org/event/facebook-live-event- true that AU has come a long way since 1994, with 2/ more students, more course, and more programs. no pre-registration required

The Voice has come a long way, too, from its humble beginnings as a quarterly newspaper to Bannock and a Movie the online weekly you're reading today. Like AU, "Wahkohtowin" The Voice has been under threat at times but Fri, October 27, 12:00 to 12:30 pm MDT continues to evolve and strengthen with every Athabasca University, Peace Hills Trust Tower, 12th floor, Room 1222, challenge. Examining our past helps inform our 10011 - 109 Street, Edmonton, AB future. We can't wait to see what the future holds In-person; limited seating for The Voice, AU, and you. Hosted by AU Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research Barbara Lehtiniemi is a writer, photographer, and AU student. She lives on a indigenous.athabascau.ca/bannock/docu windswept rural road in Eastern Ontario. mentation/Wahkohtowin17.pdf Register by phone (780)428-2064 or e- mail [email protected]

October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 9

Does Wikipedia Have a Place in Academic Research? Carla Knipe

If you are a certain age—before the Internet was a "thing"— you probably remember reaching for and thumbing through a cumbersome volume of an encyclopedia to help you with an assignment or essay. During the mid to late 1990s, encyclopedias evolved by appearing on CD-ROM. Jumping ahead a bit more, traditional printed encyclopedias became a relic of the past thanks to the vast amount of information available on the internet at the click of a mouse. The launch of Wikipedia in 2001 took the knowledge revolution further. Knowledge became accessible, easy, and democratic; all it takes to contribute to Wikipedia is a computer and an internet connection

But is there a downside to Wikipedia, especially when it is used as a resource for academic research? Does Wikipedia have a place in scholarly research?

This is the topic explored in a webinar hosted by Colin Elliott, who is Manager, Web Projects & Services, at Athabasca University Library, and Jennifer Rempel, the AU Information Literacy and Resource Access Librarian. As research specialists, they encounter a lot of myths and misinformation about using Wikipedia as an academic resource and want to help AU students discern when and how to use it.

They note that the biggest difference between a traditional printed encyclopedia and Wikipedia, other than the format, is that encyclopedia entries are heavily fact-checked and reviewed before they are published. However, the checks and balances used are also the major downfall of printed research materials such as encyclopedias. What makes Wikipedia so attractive is that changes and updates to entries can be instantly made, bypassing the review process. But the trade-off is that, more often than not, the quality and reliability of information suffers.

The AU librarians caution Wikipedia users to tread carefully. The ease of usability and the very nature of the wiki format means that anyone can edit information and editors can use any name or pseudonym they choose, which provides a cover that users can hide behind. This doesn't necessarily mean that their contributions are unreliable, but it often casts doubt on the validity of the information. Articles can also be "vandalized", where false information can be deliberately inserted to defame an individual or hijack a controversial subject. Using Wikipedia for research is definitely a case of user beware.

Despite the cautions surrounding this ad-hoc resource, students love Wikipedia because it is so easily accessible. It is often the first source that comes to mind for finding something out online. After all, many academic sources require a paid subscription. Although it is fine to use Wikipedia to become familiar with a topic as a springboard to further research, students should never cite Wikipedia articles as sources in papers or assignments; not because of academic snobbery, but because of the issues surrounding trustworthiness and validity of the information. However, one aspect of Wikipedia that is often beneficial to student research is the bibliography section that accompanies many articles. Some of the cited sources in Wikipedia articles are genuine scholarly sources. These make deeper research easier. Also, many articles contain a revision history box or "Talk" page which can also yield some great insights into a topic. 10 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

Students should also learn to discern whether a Wikipedia article meets the criteria for a "good" article or whether the information is poor. Sometimes a Wikipeda article is flagged as incomplete or needing further citations to back it up, but a savvy student will develop an intuition about what is quality information.

Even though online information is instantly accessible—and AU students are, by nature, independent learners—the best resource for tricky research problems is still the library team at the AU Library. Jennifer Rempel notes that "the Internet is of course amazing, but it doesn't replace libraries, and its ascendance means that, now more than ever, our role as Librarians is to encourage the critical evaluation of information." She says that the internet introduces a lot of other issues into research, such as accidental plagiarism. "I can see why students would be paranoid about accidental plagiarism. It's a thing that can happen, and the onus of responsibility is the student to make sure that they don't commit it; that said, it's the job of Librarians and instructors, I think, to equip students to be fully aware of plagiarism and academic integrity in general."

Although not as immediate as Wikipedia, AU students can access the AU Library and ask a Librarian about any topic, or for ideas if they are stuck on a research problem. The AU Library can be reached through email via the AU Library homepage , or students can phone call during business hours, which are 8:30 to 4:30, Monday to Friday, Mountain Time. A member of the library team will get back to you as soon as possible. AU's Reference Librarians can help you to come up with a search strategy if you are having difficulty with any aspect of research and can also point students in the right direction of accessing materials.

For students wishing to hone their research skills further, AU also offers the course COMM 100, Introduction to Research and Study Skills. There are also other discipline-specific research skills courses.

Becoming a savvy researcher is a vitally important academic skill. Wikipedia is a tempting and easy option, but it should be used only as a starting point in research, not the end.

Carla is a Calgary writer who showed an early talent for words, not numbers. To make up for the shortfall, she married a guy who was good at math. Say "hi" to her on Twitter @LunchBuster.

Women of Interest

Coco Chanel was born August 19, 1883, in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France, and died January 10, 1971, in Paris, France. Chanel is famous for her trademark suits, her little black dress, and of course her perfume, Chanel No.5. Following the death of her mother, she was put in an orphanage by her father. The nuns taught her to sew, thus launching her future career. Coco's desire was to create clothes for women that were stylish, yet comfortable. Coco Chanel was the only fashion designer to make it onto TIME magazine's list of 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In 1957 Chanel was presented with the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award. Movies and books have successfully portrayed the interesting life of Coco Chanel, including the book Chanel and Her World written by Edmonde Charles-Roux in 2005.

Additional information about Coco Chanel may be found at the following websites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Chanel https://www.biography.com/people/coco-chanel-9244165 http://www.lifetimetv.co.uk/people/coco-chanel

October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 11

The Not-So Starving Student Xin Xu DIY Hot Pot

A few years ago, when the first French fondue restaurant opened in Edmonton, I recall the amount of hype it received in the community. Everyone around me was bringing their spouse, children, friends, and relatives to gather around a pot dipping their various entrees into liquified cheese. The sight reminded me of my days in Shanghai, where the same type of hype was garnered around hot pot restaurants. Hot pot is Chinese-style fondue with vegetables and meat cooked in steaming pot of soup in lieu of cheese. Similar variations can be found in Japanese, Thai, and other south Asian cuisines each with their unique twists. The whole experience is relaxing and entertaining. The cost at local restaurants average from $23- $30 for an all-you-care-to-eat meal which makes it an extra bang-for-your-buck deal. However, for those who prefer to enjoy this in the comfort of your own home, we made a tutorial just for you.

Equipment needed: Although not required, the pot is typically heated through a portable gas or electric stove. Cooking the meal over the stove is possible, but doing that will lose the communal aspect of group- cooking around the table. For the beginner, cooking around the stove can be an option, but if you want the full experience, a portable electric or gas stove is recommended.

The next step is to retrieve a pot. For the average hot-potter, a medium sized stainless-steel pot will do. However, the Chinese take their hot pot seriously, so they utilize a special pot divided into two compartments so that guests have the option of cooking food in two different broths.

For scooping utensils, a ladle is a minimum requirement to help fish out the contents. Unlike the French fondue we don't have the luxury of using skewers, so a ladle or a strainer ladle is preferred. Personally, I prefer using a strainer ladle which drains the broth when the items are ready to eat.

Once you have successfully scooped the contents of the pot up into your individual bowl or plate, you may use any eating utensil preferred (with the exception of your hands, as the contents tend to be hot, hence the name).

12 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

Ingredients needed: The best part of your hot pot experience is that is it 100% customizable. You're not confined to a certain type of protein or vegetable so pick liberally. There's also no limit as to the number of ingredients you chose to have. If you're catering a large crowd, you may have a dozen different items. For me, the magic number I aim for to serve 1-3 people is around 5 items.

My pick of vegetarian choices: Enoki mushrooms or white mushrooms ⋅ Potato slices ⋅ Iceberg lettuce ⋅ Cucumbers ⋅ Spinach ⋅ Tofu ⋅ Vermicelli noodles

My pick of proteins: - Thinly sliced beef shank - Thinly sliced lamb shank - Meatballs

My pick of seafood (optional): - Shrimp - Imitation crab - Dried seaweed - Thinly sliced salmon - Fish tofu

Besides your favorite ingredients, you will also need to purchase the soup base. The soup base typically comes in packages at the local supermarket. The soup base is the most critical part of hot pot and is rich with spices, herbs, and seasoning oils. Without this integral part, your hot pot simply would not fly. They look something like this:

October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 13

Cooking instructions: - Once your ingredients have been prepared on plates, your following steps are the most enjoyable moments of your dining experience.

- First, crank up the heat on the cooking surface (be a stove or portable hot plate) - As soon as the heat has been turned on, add a soup base and wait for the mix to boil - When the broth begins to boil, add cold or frozen ingredients first (frozen shrimp, frozen beef or chicken slices)

- When the water boils again, the contents are ready to be served. - Repeat the previous steps and continue cooking until you and your guests are full

Word of caution: The fastest way to ruin your hot pot experience is to burn yourself. There's a reason it's named "hot pot", for the contents are boiling. Be careful when serving yourself and others. Secondly, if you're using a gas stove, make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. Finally, cook your food thoroughly in the pot to avoid food poisoning.

Xin Xu is a post-graduate health-science AU student, aspiring clinician, globe-trotter, parrot-breeder and tea-connoisseur. 14 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

All the Music be Happenin’ Now Wanda Waterman Postmodernism in Music Standing at the hub of a strange new wheel

What is postmodernism, you ask? Let me share an illustrative anecdote:

A tale of two solitudes On one fine day back in the nineties I was having a conversation with a woman of both Native American and African American descent. For some reason the topic had come around to how people on the West coast were different from people on the East coast—more adventurous, individualistic, extroverted, egotistical even, than their reserved, stolid, sterling character cohorts in the East.

"I suppose it all comes down to history," I mused. "When the European settlers started arriving, the more traditional, communal types put down roots in the East and stayed there, while the more curious, brave, and creative pioneers moved West."

I was thinking in a purely linear fashion: This, that, and the other thing are happening now because of the historical timeline that lead up to them. Makes sense, right? Wrong.

She smiled gently and replied, "I suppose I see it from the perspective of my own ancestors."

I immediately knew what she meant and was suitably humbled. Having thought of myself as typically postmodern, I thought I'd internalised the understanding that we all come from different backgrounds and that no one group should dictate the history, values, and morals of the others.

It hadn't occurred to me that her historical context was totally different from mine. Many of her ancestors had arrived from the West and moved East. Others had been brought by force to the southeast and had thereafter moved north. In her worldview, blaming history for making Westerners creative but uncivilised and for making Easterners disciplined but dull just didn't apply.

Losing the linear or gaining the circular? Postmodernism is sometimes described as the loss of a culture's ability to to think in a linear fashion, but I tend to think that we've gained an enhanced ability to understand reality, progressing to a way of thinking that's more like a mindmap or a Venn diagram than a historical timeline.

Things still happen in lines, yes, but in multiple lines all radiating from the hub of the present, which turns out to be the product of many streams of influence. Needless to say this renders the idea of "progress," at least as defined in modernist terms, obsolete.

October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 15

No external measure of truth In addition to respecting multiple viewpoints, another important element of postmodernity is the questioning of hierarchical power. Few people can now say with any conviction that parents, teachers, the church, the justice system, rulers, or, for the purposes of our present exploration, record companies, should be obeyed without question. We know too much now, and besides, the trust is gone.

What this means is that the individual sees herself as the highest authority on her own truth. In a way this is no different from the the beliefs of our ancestors; even those who dictated obediance to the law were doing so out of a conviction that existed within their own skulls. Carl Jung was right, after all, when he said that the only means we have for discerning truth is the human brain—a highly fallible instrument, to say the least.

What this means for postmodernists is that individuals can't easily be compelled to trust outside sources of "truth," and there's no external measure by which degrees of truth can be determined.

In its ideal state postmodernism is a balance between groupthink and individual think, a new social model in which every individual viewpoint is given equal weight and no one viewpoint is allowed center stage. A ridiculously tall order, but aiming for it does engender an interesting array of personal stances, ranging from a more authentic valuing of our fellow creatures to a sense that since no one matters more than another, no one really matters at all.

What does postmodernism mean for music? If we were to try to explain the postmodern experience of music to a modern from the past, we might get them to imagine themselves at the centre of a wheel with spokes, representing different musical histories, radiating out in every direction. At the hub of this wheel every genre of music is simultaneously available for listening or performing.

They would soon understand why genres are now mixing and morphing so fast that even the idea of genre is becoming obsolete. They might also understand why there's no one musical "scene" that everyone feels constrained to follow.

So what do we have now? What special knowledge can we gain from standing at the centre of this strange new wheel, in which early medieval polyphony and Balinese gamelan music are no further from our ears than Beyoncé? What special insight might postmodernism grant us into the nature of music itself?

Wanda also writes the blog The Mindful Bard: The Care and Feeding of the Creative Self.

16 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

The Creative Spark! Marie Well Unstuck Studies Do you get stuck when studying? Well, don't stop seeking solutions. An answer will appear as fast as a semi-truck driver sneaks shipped bags-of- oats for his pantry.

Here are some tips for busting creative blocks, as partly gleaned from Beth Brown's blurb in Noah Scalin's book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get and Keep Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio:

Tip #1: Don't struggle with lack of technology. I have Internet access a mere two hours a day. So, I work off my cellphone Word app. I write during the morning dim, tapping my phone's tiny lit keypad in pure silence. Later, I nuzzle into chairs Starbucks-style and read textbooks two hours straight.

Tip #2: Reward yourself when you reach your goals. Indulging gives me guilt. So, whenever I desire gifts for myself, I'll splurge on someone else. Live vicariously, right? Conscience free. Buy a gift card at Starbucks to pay for patrons until the card runs out.

Tip #3: Break down your goals into tiny chunks. When weight-training, focus on five reps at a time. When doing calisthenics, focus on five- minute increments. When studying, focus on fifteen-minute brain strains—a tiny task at a time. But don't stop too soon. When I clean fifteen-minute stints, I need two daily rounds to make a dent.

Tip #4: Don't stare down blank pages as you cram-write your essay. Instead, write a goofy title, sign your name, and jot down sloppy thoughts in square brackets. Often, the stuff in brackets gets massaged into the final draft.

Tip #5: When crafting your essay's thesis, imagine your essay just died of a heart attack. Then think of six words or less you'd put on your essay's tomb. Here's an example: "Moved by the heart in boxing." Ah, you've got your title.

Tip #6: Pay heed to your personality and talents, too. If you have a grateful side, choose essay topics that display your gratitude. If you work as a master chef, slip cooking metaphors into your papers. If people flock around you, email academics for quotes to liven your articles.

Noah Scalin offers creative tasks to get you unstuck in his book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio. What follows is a taste of Scalin's creative- block busters: October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 17

• Make a visual out of themes. [Or make a model out of essay themes.] Place each theme as a header of a column. Under each theme, write a list of related nouns and adjectives. Pick a word from each list; combine them to craft a visual. • Use six words to tell your life story. Write the six-word story as if chatting casually to your best friend. • Have lots of projects on the go. When one bores, turn to the next. • Take a theme and let your emotions turn it into a squiggle on a page. Then make an image out of the squiggle. Use this trick to make abstract images for logos or cover pages. • When stuck for creative ideas, get inspired outdoors.

Imagine your papers dying of heart attacks. What would their tombs say? Of course, "Deserves an A!" A paradox? I call it a creative spark.

Scholarship of the Week

Digging up scholarship treasure for AU students.

Scholarship name: Live Your Dream Awards

Sponsored by: Soroptimist

Deadline: November 15, 2017

Potential payout: varies by region; up to $10,000

Eligibility restriction: Eligibility restricted to women who are the primary financial support for themselves and their dependents, can demonstrate financial need, are enrolled in a post-secondary program, and do not have a graduate degree. See full eligibility requirements.

What's required: A completed application form, a short essay describing your career goals, personal financial information, two reference letters, and a maximum 750-word essay describing the challenges you've faced in fulfilling your dreams.

Tips: Check out videos of previous award winners.

Where to get info: www.soroptimist.org/awards/live-your-dream-awards

18 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

Music Review Drew Kolohon Bliss n Eso Following the release of their album Off the Grid, the Australian hip hop group, Bliss n Eso, went on a fifteen show Canadian tour. Starting in Victoria, BC, and ending in Toronto, ON, Bliss n Eso showed off their new album as well as their older hits. MC Bliss, MC Eso, and DJ Izm make up the Hip Hop trio. Bliss n Eso are extremely popular in their homeland, winning awards at the APRA's and ARIA's, highly esteemed award ceremonies in Australia. Not only have they won awards, but they also have three platinum records and endorsements from Rolling Stone Magazine and the Daily Telegraph.

The self-titled song, "Off the Grid" starts off as an introduction to the rest of the album. The line "its been awhile, yes it has, now its time for the solar eclipse" shows the spirit that Bliss n Eso have coming back to make this album. They already knew that it would be a success. This song bleeds confidence and showcases what this trio is best at. The barebones drum beat with a deep horn background creates a dark and intense feel.

"Tear the Roof Off" showcases the incredible timing and rhyme scheme that this hip hop trio is known for. With the addition of Watsky, a rapper that has an incredible talent of fast rapping, Bliss n Eso take to the challenge and lay down some incredible fast lines. Watsky is best known for his video Pale Kid Raps Fast, which got him interviewed on Ellen. Keeping up with Watsky could prove challenging, but MC Bliss and MC Eso each get a long verse to demonstrate their speed. DJ Izm gets his time to shine in "Whatever Happened to the DJ". Izm adds his scratching skills to this song almost working as a third vocalist. The song focuses on the importance of having a solid DJ, and references how they have seen many rappers in their travels, most of which don't have a DJ. Izm's scratching plays very well with the vocals of Bliss n Eso.

Having a large following in Australia, Bliss n Eso have gained much success, even holding a record for the largest hip hop tour with 55,000 fans. Touring in Canada means that they can showcase their skills to a new audience. A month prior to dropping Off the Grid they dropped their single "Moments", which features Gavin James and has been streamed over thirteen million times on Spotify at this writing. The timing was perfect, creating some hype for the drop of their album. "Moments" is a song that illuminates Bliss n Eso's range. Slower than most songs on their album, it lets Bliss n Eso reminisce on their past and examine their own personal journey. Gavin James voice adds to the emotional connection on this song.

All the band's music can be found on their website. Off The Grid can be found on all of the typical streaming sites as well as their site. I strongly recommend adding this to your hip hop playlist.

Drew Kolohon is an avid music fan who is finishing up his Bachelor’s degree in English. October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 19

The Fit Student Marie Well Summers in the Sun

I taught English to Japanese. The Japanese claim the longest lifespans—and best diets. They eat Miso soup, made of fermented beans, that is brimming with probiotics. The Japanese hardly blimp out either—a single plate of Canadian grub feeds a Japanese family-of-four.

But McDonalds sprouted in Japan, luring Japanese youth to fatty diets. Sushi and plants got shoved aside for cows on white wheat buns. We are what we eat.

Lately, I’ve been chomping mostly plants. So, eating a small salad and salmon stuffs me. But not long ago, I gorged buffet meats. After each buffet, I’d fret crammed slabs of beef piercing my intestinal walls. I guzzled five teas daily, too—sweetened with fifteen packs of sugar. Thus, my nose glowed with zits. But when I heard sugary teas lead to diabetes, I began drinking tea black. No less enjoyment. No ghastly golf-balls pocking my nose.

Unlike meats and sweets, plants reduce the risk of cancer. And low cancer rates in Japan lend to longer lifespans. So, Japan’s lion-share of seniors makes Canada’s baby boomers look like cubs.

As for me, I stand at risk for cancer. Doctors dragged me in for cancer screenings every three months. Fed up, I hid for a year. When I resurfaced, a doctor found a lump. So, she hauled me in for a biopsy. Nothing. Then an MRI. Still nothing. Now, I believe I’m cancer free, as I guzzle green tea—like the Japanese.

My hope? To go a year without radiation. One tech said x-rays are simply the same as a summer in the sun. In other words, I’ve had more sun than Jane Fonda, Pamela Anderson, and Chernobyl combined.

Colin Campbell and Thomas Campbell talk about lessons from China in their book The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted: • Why should you learn lessons from the Chinese diet? “Good health is about being able to fully enjoy the time we do have … avoiding crippling, painful and lengthy battles with disease” (p. 75). • The healthiest Chinese consume “much higher overall calorie intake, less fat, less protein, much less animal foods, more fiber and much more iron” (p. 74). • The Chinese eat less “animal-based foods [which] are strongly linked to breast cancer” (p. 89). • Americans are at high risk of dying from heart disease and breast cancer: “The death rate from coronary heart disease was seventeen times higher among American men 20 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

than rural Chinese men. The American death rate from breast cancer was five times higher than the rural Chinese rate” (p. 79). • Dietary fats cause many Western diseases: “The amount of dietary fat consumed was closely associated with the incidence of breast cancer, large bowel cancer and heart disease.” (p. 84). • Dietary fats kill. Where do dietary fats come from? Mostly animal foods. “Dietary fat is an indicator of how much animal-based food is in the diet. It is almost a perfect match” (p. 83). • So, eat less meat to lower dietary fats and bypass disease: “Reducing dietary fat from 24% to 6% was associated with lower breast cancer risk. However, lower dietary fat in rural China meant less consumption not only of fat but, more importantly, of animal-based food” (p. 87).

So, study foods eaten by friends from China and Japan. For instance, when asked what’s for dinner, Canadians say, steak or pork while the Chinese say, noodle or rice. The difference? Summers in the sun.

See How Far You’ve Come Deanna Roney

Sometimes the tasks we undertake seem impossible until they are done. Then the next step looks just as, or even more, daunting than the last, and we think "how will we ever accomplish that?" A habit I had with my courses at Athabasca University was flipping through to the end of the study guide and seeing what the big project was going to be. I would consider the topics and, as I worked through the course load, I would keep these in mind. Sometimes, by the time I reached it, I would have picked one already. Sometimes not. But every time that the final looked impossible at the beginning, by the time I got there it was utterly manageable.

I remind myself of this as I continue working my way through internships and toward (hopefully) a position within publishing. It is easy to feel like a person is stuck and not making any progress, but if I stop and consider how far I have come, how much I have learned, and where I am sitting now compared to when I started, I have come a long way. With the courses there are landmarks, assignment 1, 2, etc. there are units to progress through and at each turn, there is a mark and a sense of accomplishment. Once you step outside the doors of the university, these small victories are easy to lose sight of.

Even if we try to stop and take notice of the achievements we've made, it isn't the same as seeing the progression through a program, with the program there is an end in sight. Beyond it, there isn't a definite end. When trying to get into publishing while being remote there are definitely no clear signposts. October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 21

I have found that to keep motivated and to keep feeling like you are making progress it is important to track where you start from and plot the important events out. Then, on those days when it all feels a bit impossible and it feels like you aren't moving forward, you can go look at the chart you've made and see just how far you have come.

Nothing happens overnight, nothing happens without effort and a bit of angst thrown in for good measure. And it is possible that it is not going to end the way you expected when you started, and that is okay. I started my degree with an idea, but I shifted focus as I worked my way through the courses. I added a minor to my degree that I didn't foresee and that minor has affected the way I see the world around me and how I am moving forward now. It changed my desires in a way that I never saw coming, and honed the dream in a new and exciting way.

Whatever you are working toward, be it your degree or something outside of it. It's important to track your progress. For my program, I printed out my program plan and, as I selected courses, I penciled them in. When I completed them I highlighted them in blue. It was exciting to see the credits fill up and to see that paper slowly turn from white to blue. I could see my in-progress courses, I could see the completed and I could see the spaces I had yet to fill. Creating something visual, I have found, is so helpful in keeping things in perspective and keeping motivation flowing. So on those days when your brain is dead from focusing on a course or work too long and you feel like it is never going to end, you can look (with little brain power) and see just how far you have come.

Cut yourself some slack and take pride in each step you take towards realizing your dream.

Deanna is an AU graduate who loves adventure in life and literature. Follow her path on the writing journey at https://deannaroney.wordpress.com/

Student Sizzle — AU's Hot Social Media Topics Following What's Hot around AU's Social Media Sites. AthaU Facebook Group Fred inquires whether course extensions can be requested less than the required one month before the course end date; students respond with instances of exceptions made due to extreme circumstances. Carlie laments over a perfectly awful ProctorU experience but others assure her this is unusual.

Other posts include myAU's refreshing new look, new AU e-mail addresses for students, and courses COMM 277, PHIL 252, and PSYC 388.

Twitter @AthabascaUSU (AUSU) tweets: "Free Money! Apply now for AUSU Awards and Bursaries - deadline November 1. Over $20,000 to give away! http://bit.ly/1GlWJhi." @AthabascaUBiz tweets: "Have you heard the news? We've extended the deadline to apply to the MBA for executives to Oct. 31! http://business.athabascau.ca/mba."

Youtube Pitch your wits against the Edmonton Eskimos in Athabasca University Trivia. 22 The Voice Magazine October 20, 2017

Very Superstitious, Writings on the Wall Dear Barb:

I am the mother of a fourteen-year-old daughter. We have always had a strained relationship and it just seems to be getting worse. I had a difficult relationship with my mother and I hoped that my relationship with my daughter would be different, but it doesn't seem to be. I come from a family of quiet, conservative people, who try hard to be humble for what we have or can do. My family always cautioned me about trying to be "too big for my britches". My daughter is extremely outgoing, always wanting to be the centre of attention and the life of the party. She seems to be craving my approval but that is not something I'm comfortable giving. While I enjoy the fact that she is outgoing, I find myself a bit uncomfortable with it and often try to suppress her. We get into some pretty heated battles which makes me feel awful afterward. My husband is much more easy-going and gets along quite well with our daughter. I love my daughter tremendously, but I fear if I don't try to curtail her personality other people will and that will be very painful for her. She is constantly accusing me of trying to change her. I'm really just trying to make her a better person. Looking for some advice, thanks. Heather.

Hi Heather:

Thanks for sharing your story. The best advice I can give you is to love the child you have, not the one you wish you had. You seem to have expectations for your daughter based on your family history. She is an individual. We are not all cut from the same cloth just because we come from the same gene pool. Step out of your comfort zone and embrace your daughter's differences. Throughout her life she will encounter people who do not appreciate her personality and others who think she's awesome. It's not up to you to "curtail" her personality; your job is to accept her as she is. Fourteen is an age where she is still learning who she really is. You can help her on this journey, not by trying to change her, but rather through acceptance and love. As a parent your responsibility is to encourage your child to be who they want to be, not who you think they should be. Maybe you can take some cues from your husband and just relax and enjoy your daughter for who she is. Good luck and remember that the teenage years are challenging for all parents.

Follow Barb on twitter @BarbGod Email your questions to [email protected]. Some submissions may be edited for length or to protect confidentiality; your real name and location will never be printed. This column is for entertainment only. The author is not a professional counsellor and this column is not intended to take the place of professional advice. October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 23

IMPORTANT DATES

• Oct 23: Edmonton Student Meet & Greet • Oct 23: Facebook Live Event • Oct 31: Deadline to apply for course extension for Dec • Nov 10: Deadline to register in a course starting Dec 1 • Nov 14: AUSU Council Meeting • Nov 15: December degree requirements deadline This space is provided by AUSU. The Voice does not create this content. Contact [email protected] with any questions. • Nov 30: Deadline to apply for course extension for Jan

Awards & Bursaries – Deadline Nov 1 Win a Prize with Facebook Live

Only 10 days left to apply for AUSU's November cycle AUSU will be hosting some Facebook Live Events! Join awards and bursaries! Each award is worth $1000. your AUSU executives in some great discussions about AU, balancing commitments, tips on how to succeed, and Academic Achievement Award (2 available): For more! academic high achievers.

AUSU Bursaries (5 available): For students in financial Post a comment or question during any of need and/or with exceptional life circumstances. our Facebook Live events for a chance to Balanced Student Award (4 available): For students win a sweet AUSU prize pack! balancing multiple commitments. Come visit AUSU live at facebook.com/AthaUSU during Returning Student Awards (4 available): For students the sessions listed below. Participate in the session and who returned to studies after a long break of two or your name will be entered into a prize draw. Must be an more years. AUSU member to win a prize. Single Parent Bursary (2 available): For single parents in financial need. Monday, October 23 at 12pm MT

Student Volunteer Awards (2 available): For students Topics: Secrets for studying online, ways to balance your who do volunteer work. commitments such as family, work, school, etc. #Igo2AU Award (1 available): Available to all AUSU members, no matter how many courses they have Friday, October 27 at 4pm MT completed. Applicants need to submit either a 500-word essay or 30-second video articulating any one, or a Topics: Supports available to students, ways to balance combination of: what makes AU unique; how does/has your commitments such as family, work, school, etc. AU improve(d) their lives; what is it about AU that fuels their passion for learning; why they chose AU; how does Thursday, November 2 at 5pm MT AU inspire them, and/or; what AU means to them. Topics: What was your favourite course and why was it Find out more or apply online here. awesome? October 20, 2017 Volume 25, Issue 41 25

CLASSIFIEDS

Classifieds are free for AU students! Contact [email protected] for more information.

THE VOICE

301 Energy Square - 10109 – 106 St NW - Edmonton AB - T5J 3L7 Ph: 855.497.7003

Publisher Athabasca University Students’ Union Editor-In-Chief Jodi Campbell Managing Editor Karl Low

Regular Columnists Hazel Anaka, Barb Godin, Scott Jacobsen, Carla Knipe Barbara Lehtiniemi, Deanne Roney, Wanda Waterman, Xin Xu

www.voicemagazine.org

The Voice is published almost every Friday in HTML and PDF format.

Contact The Voice at [email protected].

To receive a weekly email announcing each issue, subscribe here. The Voice does not share its subscriber list.

© 2017 by The Voice Magazine