After splitting four sets in back-andforth fashion, the Lady Jaguars picked the right time to win two in a row as they defeated the Lady Patriots in five sets, 3-2.

Francis Marion University held a 2-1 lead over Augusta State University through three sets, but the Lady Jaguars stormed back to take the fourth set in dominating fashion, 25-15. This surge in momentum carried to the final set as the Jaguars handled the Patriots, 15-6.

“Francis Marion is always a good team, and it was a battle,” head coach Sharon Bonaventure said. “The good thing is every one stepped up and every one played, and some one was there to answer the call in whichever moment they needed to. That was huge.”

Freshman Alex Rohlfing led with 18 kills and 11 digs, while freshman Kristen Koch added 16 kills. After struggling to gain momentum in the two lost sets, Rohlfing stepped up in the final two sets to help lead the Jaguars to victory.

“I play better under pressure, whenever I realize it’s a conference match, and this was an important match for our ranking,” Rohlfing said. “It seemed like there was a fire lit under us. Team energy is usually what wins games and we’ve brought that to the floor the last two games.” Freshman Collette Richards led Augusta State with 31 digs.

Freshman Chelsea Foster added 14. Junior Krystin Wahlig led with 57 assists.

The first set proved to be an indication of how the entire match would play out. Several lead changes resulted in a tie at 20 before Francis Marion pulled away for a 25-22 win. The second set was similar and perhaps the closest, as the two teams fought to a 24-23 lead by Augusta State before the Jaguars sealed the set win at 25-23.

Drastic reversals were the theme of the next two sets. After the Patriots took the third set in strong fashion at 25-18, the Jaguars answered in the fourth set with their own dominating win at 25-15, staying alive and moving to a deciding set. The Jaguars jumped to a quick lead and didn’t give it up, sealing the match win by nine points.

“It seems like our mode of operation is we attack, we let off the throttle, we come back strong and then we let teams come back,” Bonaventure said. “So our thing is get consistent, stay consistent and power through it.”

The inconsistent nature of the Jaguars throughout the match was seen in the two set losses, especially the third set, when they came within four points of the Patriots before falling back and losing by seven. This was answered by a 10-point win in the following set.

Bonaventure attributed the inconsistency to the team being young.

“We just have such young players,” she said. “When you play young players, you see it fly across your face and you just get distracted. So our thing is not get distracted and stay in the game every moment. It’s a process. That comes with play and experience.”

With the win, Augusta State moved to 11-12 and 3-4 in the Peach Belt Conference. The Jaguars have one more home conference match against Montevallo on Oct. 17 before hitting the road for nine straight matches.

The Felice Brothers, a folk, country, rock blend, based out of Catskills, N.Y. had no expectations as to what a first show in Augusta, Ga., on the Christmas-light stage of Sky City would be like.

Simply put, they probably weren’t expecting a crowd of at most 50 people, of whom 1/3 won’t remember the surprisingly rhythmic show or the dance moves they pulled off (for everyone else there is Facebook).

Still, there was the lonely, die-hard fan that covers their music locally and at one point had the microphone shoved in his face to sing along. He did not pass it up.

The band members, as performers, moved on stage like a da Vinci’s Last Super.

The fiddle player, stage right, Greg Farley, was bent over most of the show switching in between the fiddle and a sample pad; on piano and accordion, James Felice, instinctively leaned left over and over again, as if someone’s shoulder was there to lean on; bassists, Christmas Clapton, spent the track time when he was not singing on his knees tucked over; the most normal – if by this point is even possible to be saidlead guitarist, Ian Felice, stood straight up, drenched in the blood-red spotlight, intently dragging his lyrics behind the stomp of the drummers kick; Dave Tuberville, kept time with ghost eighth notes on the right hand instead of the high-hat.

Midway through the show, James Felice, looked to the crowd and said, “maybe after the show, we can sit down in a circle and talk about how we all need to act better.”

For all of their stage presence, the pounding intensity of their tunes, haunting melodies from the accordion and pleasant shrieks by the fiddle it was not matched by crowd presence.

How this is their first time in Augusta, Ga., defies logic.

To go right out and say absent Augustans missed the show of the year would be a stretch – not too far of a stretch, one fan publicly apologized for the rest of Augusta “totally missing this” – but what would be best to say is that music junkies of the area and the Felice Brothers are a perfect match.

The whole ambience in Sky City kind of took the feel of that familiar scene in Titanic where Jack and Rose dance in the immigrant quarters, a scene that could easily be replicated at a backyard reception for a Summerville couples wedding.

Their music, especially tunes like, “Ponzi” and “Fire at the Pageant” are very folk-driven and country-grounded. Indeed their music has been described as a revival of Americana and in many ways achieved that, but at times though, the group seemed to be off-kilter, playing hip-hop samples in between song changes. Generally, the Felice Brothers were too hip to be country, but too country to be hip, a label that does not fall far from the target description of Augusta.

For more than 30 years now, one Augusta, Ga., restaurant has been adding its own flair to a popular Bavarian celebration.

The Villa Europa, located off of Deans Bridge Road in Augusta, is gearing up to celebrate its annual Oktoberfest. Server Michael Malon said it’s the festival is the biggest event of the year for the restaurant.

“It’s the one week the Villa anticipates for the whole year,” he said. “Pre-planning for next year starts as soon a s this year’s festival ends. A lot of work goes into the planning. It’s very time intensive.”

This year’s festival is set to run Oct. 9-13 and is expected to attract more than 2,000 customers over the fiveday period. That number does not include the amount of customers that may show up only to drink and take part in the nightly events.

Malon, now participating in his second Oktoberfest at the Villa Europa, said the festival is as close to authentic as possible.

“It’s hard working in a closed environment,” he said. “You can only do so much in a restaurant but for what we have it works pretty well. The waiting staff gets dressed up in lederhosen and dirndls and everything. It’s pretty authentic to the extent of what you can actually do over here.”

In preparation for the event, the restaurant rearranges the furniture to resemble a festival-like seating arrangement not unlike that found in the German Oktoberfest.

“We essentially move all of the furniture out of the middle of the restaurant the Saturday before and make a big stage in the main dining room,” Malon said. “There is a band coming in from Texas which will be playing most of the days. They do a lot to stay current with the Oktoberfest music.”

Patricia Schaffer, co-owner of the Villa Europa, said their festival adds local flair to the traditional celebration.

“Here we have brought some of the traditions from Germany and mix them with local traditions,” she said. “There are some German traditions that are pure that we won’t touch. You just don’t mess with that. But there are others we just come up with, like the games that the band puts together to get the customers involved.”

Schaffer said the activities range from yodeling contests to a beer stein raising competition, a test to see who can hold a stein of beer with an outstretched arm the longest.

An employee dressed up in a chicken outfit leads other activities.

“You might see the chicken and be pushed into doing the chicken dance or forced into the snake train coming through the restaurant,” Schaffer said. “You aren’t required to participate but it is strongly encouraged that you do.”

Malon, who previously worked as a waiter at two Oktoberfest celebrations in Germany, said the food is perhaps what sets the Villa Europa’s celebration apart from other Oktoberfests.

“The food is very authentic,” he said. “We have a limited menu during Oktoberfest and all of other cooks do a good job in making food like the kind you would find in Munich. The beer selection is similar to what you would find in Germany.”

Schaffer said guests should expect a variety of activities to happen simultaneously since the seven-room layout of the restaurant allows different activities to occur in different parts of the building. The Villa Europa will have festivities each day during Oktoberfest.

If you or any of your friends are experiencing these symptoms, please do not hesitate, get diagnosed today!

Does every building on campus reek with the odor of fresh meat? Are there seemingly never enough parking spaces? Do the hallways seem more crowded than you remember them being? Do you feel surrounded by strangers in places where there were once familiar faces?

While I am not medically certified to diagnose or even treat these symptoms, I can speculate that you might be suffering from senioritis. I think I might be suffering from early onset senioritis, and an extreme case at that.

When I have to say ‘excuse me’ more than once to pass a group of obvious underclassmen who have yet to receive the hallway etiquette memo, I’d say this case is pretty serious. You might be reading this and saying, “Geez, Hab, build a bridge and get over it,” in which case I suggest you try being a 32-year-old college senior nine months away from graduating.

See how little things make giant ripples in your own personal pool of annoyance. Watch as the coolest friends you once had on campus graduate and are slowly replaced by loud and obnoxious underclassmen. Did I mention rude? As in, I’m trying to listen to the lecture while you carry on private conversations right behind me?

Cell phone etiquette itself is an entirely different can of worms altogether. However, when mixed with senioritis, it creates super-sensitive hearing where every conversation seems too loud. Sure, the computer labs don’t have signs that say you’re not allowed to talk on your cell phone while inside, but how inconsiderate must you be to carry on while some people are working? Normally, this would be a forgivable offense, but to a senior, it’s a gross violation of the unnecessary kind.

I thought it was too early in the semester to feel so strongly until I ran into a friend who felt the same way. We shared our experiences and related the fact that May could not get here fast enough. The frustrations of being a senior, though, pale in comparison to the ultimate reward awaiting us in May. But it’s only August, so we must contend with these frustrations and see our way through it without breaking down and punching a wall, fellow student, professor or all three!

My own experiences with this condition date back almost 15 years to my senior year in high school. Since I know what it feels like, I feel better about my chances of overcoming my senioritis than I did in 1996. That year, it had gotten so bad that I faced the prospect of not graduating if I didn’t pass an algebra exam. This time around, the prize is greater and more meaningful, so it would behoove me to put my senioritis and underclassmen annoyance into proper perspective.

If the senioritis bug has bitten you already, my advice to you is to see through the impending research papers and freshman rudeness. Leave the house early enough to secure adequate parking. And most of all, smile because graduation day will be here before you know it.

French, German, the Caribbean, and nearly a dozen Spanishspeaking countries were represented in the International Festival Sept. 29 in the Doug Barnard Jr. Amphitheater.

The International Festival was created as an opportunity for international students to present their culture to other Augusta State University students and interact with one another. Jana Sandarg, a professor of Spanish, was the first person to begin organizing an international festival at the beginning of her teaching career at Augusta State.

“At that time there was one Spanish teacher, one French teacher, and one German teacher,” Sandarg said. “Our department was holding Renaissance fairs. We had jousting and those kinds of things that were popular at the time. After, I decided we needed an international festival because that was more focusing on medieval (culture)”.

Later, Gina Thurman, assistant dean of students and adviser of the International Student Club, connected with Sandarg and the International Festival has been a co-venture between the department of foreign language and the dean of student’s office.

“(The cooperation) happened shortly after Dean Jones arrived,” Thurman said. “The only international thing we had, was the international Thanksgiving that the International Student club sponsors. We thought it would be a great way for everyone to meet our international students, learn about their culture, and show us a little bit about themselves.”

Student organizations, such as the French Club, Spanish Club and the Afro-Caribbean Student Association all had tables serving authentic foods, such as empanadas, quiche, and beef patties. Some tables also had poster boards giving more insight on each country.

“I’ve never liked geography, but if you look at different (countries) in terms of music, food, and culture, if it comes alive, it becomes more interesting to me,” said Timothy Kelly, a sophomore music education major. “I’m into a lot of American blue grass and square dancing. I was interested to see what kind of dancing other cultures had.”

A fashion show was also held during the festival for students and faculty with traditional foreign attire to participate in to display their culture. Other off-campus organizations such as the Mangelly Belly Dancers, A & E Salsa Dance Studio, and the International Folk Dance group, among others also participated.

“One thing Dean Jones asked us to do is to solicit food vendors to come give free samples and gift cards,” Liz Trotter, coordinator of special programs, said. “Moe’s is coming out and giving away chips and salsa. P.F. Changs is giving away gift cards and raffle prizes. Yosko Japanese Steakhouse is donating chicken teriyaki for students to sample.”

Thurman said she hopes the festival can grow and become an annual campus event. While the festival has been a long living campus event, it has not been held annually due to other obligations on part of the planners. Sandarg said she received a lot of support from the Spanish club in the planning to the festival.

“We just cannot handle everything,” Sandarg said. “We’re pushed beyond our limits of what we can do but nonetheless, I went to Joyce Jones because I think this is important. We all agree it is important so we are working together to make it happen.”

Augusta had the opportunity to listen to what goes on behind the scenes of “This American Life” on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Ira Glass spoke at Augusta State University as part of the Lyceum Series and Westobou Festival. Glass, who has been with National Public Radio (NPR) since he was 19 years old, gave a brief overview of how his career has progressed over the years, and even how he chooses story ideas for his show, which features stories of people across America in all walks of life. He said one of the innovations for “This American Life” was that they wanted to be a public radio show for people who could not stand public radio.

“I think that most people have an interesting story to tell,” Glass said. “I do not think most people have an interesting story to tell for the radio. For a story to be interesting on the radio, it has to be pretty surprising. I think the show is successful because it’s really fun to hear great stories.”

He said it takes anywhere from three to four months for them to put together an episode of “This American Life.” For the stories featured on an episode, Glass said it may take two to three months for complicated stories, and easy stories take about a week or two to put together.

“We look for stories, and people pitch us stories,” Glass said. “Usually we do very specialized story work on our show where there are characters and scenes, and a real plot to it; there are surprise plot twists and funny moments, and emotional moments, and it’s different than a lot of traditional journalism.”

He is always looking for story ideas, and one story line he did for his show was called “Georgia Rambler,” which he said was based on an old newspaper column from the Atlanta Journal Constitution from the1970s. Glass said the story line was the reporter would pick a random Georgia town, drive there, and look for “the most interesting person in town.” Glass said he and seven others flew to Georgia, picked town names out of a hat, and went from there.

Glass said he got Glynn County, which is Brunswick and Jekyll Island. He decided to do a story about the drug court judge, Amanda Williams, called “Very Tough Love,” which was about Williams and how she runs her drug court.

Interesting stories have made “This American Life” successful. Several stories that Glass has done on his show are set to become films, and he said he hopes one will be presented at Sundance Music Festival in January.

Glass said there is not a lot of money to be made in journalism, so the reason for working in this line of work is excitement. He said it is not a trivial thing, and that should be considered when looking for a job.

“One thing that nobody tells you when you’re in school, because they want you to get skills,” Glass said, “is that it’s also really important that when you’re making stories and when you’re looking for a job, that you keep in mind that you want to be amusing yourself. The very best reporters are doing stuff that they are super-interested in personally.”

For the first time, Spanish music group La Tuna Universitaria made an appearance in Augusta.

From Salamanca, Spain came to Augusta to spread a bit of Spanish culture at the Hispanic festival, Augusta State University and surrounding schools.

“A tuna is a Spanish university band that plays folkloric songs,” said Frederic Leveziel, assistant professor of Spanish. “It has long been a tradition in Spain. (This group) is from the most famous and oldest one is in Salamanca, which is the one visiting us now.”

La Tuna Universitaria de Salamanca has been around since the University of Salamanca was founded in Spain in 1218. Historically, as poor students, they sang for food and money to make a living while attending the university. Today La Tuna continues to sing and play wearing the same costumes the members used to wear back in 13th century.

Traditionally La Tuna is an all-male band, but there are a few all-female tuna groups. The tunas in Spain are typically known for entertaining people. They also enjoy serenading and wooing women with their music. The voices of the male members harmonize together in the romantic pursuit of what they like to call their ‘damas’.

Leveziel along with Jana Sandarg, professor of Spanish, and Edwin Perez, a member of Asociación Cultural Hispanoamericana (ACHA) came together to set up the visit of five tunos here in Augusta, Ga., and their performance at the Hispanic Festival this year.

“There hasn’t been much of Spain in the festival,” said Sandarg who is also a member of ACHA. “We have Panamanian, Mexican and Puerto Rican but hardly ever any representation from Spain. This is pretty different and unique.”

With five tunos here this year for the festival attracted a small audience of Spaniards living in Augusta.

“I am very happy La Tuna is here and that Spain is being represented,” said Inmaculada Davis, a Spanish native who has lived in the states for 14 years. “I have been to the festival every year, but having them here tops every other year for me. I am very thankful. It is like bringing a little of Spain and reminds me of my homeland.”

The mastermind behind the visit, Leveziel, said he hoped their visit and performances on campus and at the festival would do more than just entertain people.

“Culture,” said Leveziel, “culture is the main reason for their visit here. People don’t study language for the grammar, verbs or conjugation. They study a language because they like the culture. If people like the culture then they enjoy studying the language.”

Sandarg agreed.

“I am really hoping this will make students at ASU want to go on the Salamanca study abroad,” said Sandarg. “We brought a little bit of their culture here and need to take some of ours there. This is all really neat here one afternoon, but in Salamanca it’s every day and every night.”

When I came to college, I was under the impression we were all to be considered adults, but then I realized we are all NOT adults. Adults are people who are able to manage their lives independently and on their own accord; sadly, not everyone here at this university are capable of doing these things.

Becoming an adult may seem daunting at first, but simple things such as being accountable for your own actions and taking responsibility for those actions are things we’ve been taught for years, yet not everyone has been able to put those skills to work. Is it because a lack of desire, or a lack of ability to learn and better yourselves as people? Whatever the reason being, grow up people and accept the inevitable!

Exhibit A: Throwing your lukewarm remnants of Starbucks coffee on the floor of a classroom and LEAVING it there for someone else to clean up is not only irresponsible, but disrespectful and arrogant. Yes we do have a custodial staff, but it is not the staff’s responsibility to clean up after you as if you are a helpless little baby. How hard would it be to put your coffee cup in the trash can, you know that brown plastic container with a plastic bag in it for trash? But instead, the temptation to leave it knocked over and spilled on the floor grew so great you just had to give in and thoughtlessly leave your mess for someone else.

Exhibit B: I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the faucets in the restrooms are NOT automatic. What should give that away is when you have to use your hands to turn them on. Now I know by the time you are done washing your hands (thank God) your busy brain might forget you were actually the one who turned on the water, but please try. DO NOT leave the water running as you dry your hands and walk out the door. Not only is it wasteful or resources, but give me a break, how hard is it to turn off the water which you turned on in the first place? Why would you leave it on for someone else to turn off? Should we designate people to be honorary water turneroffers?

Exhibit C: Share the hallways. You are not the only person in the world or on this campus. When you are walking down the hall or the sidewalk, be considerate of others around you. Were they walking on the path first? Are you the one walking against the flow of traffic, or are you not paying attention in the slightest and just assume the sea of students leaving class will part while your stroll along at a snail’s pace giggling, yelling into your cell phone? Whatever the case may be, be mindful of others and respect the unspoken guideline of pedestrian flow. If someone else got to the staircase first, let them go down it before you. As you walk through the door, hold it open for the person behind you.

All in all people, these requests of courtesy and hopes you all will assume responsibility for your own actions are really not too much to ask of my fellow students, of humanity. Let’s be grown-ups and step into a realm of adulthood with our heads held high, a world where we throw away our own trash and understand none of us are entitled.

I seem to have an overload of assignments lately.

Papers, tests, quizzes, read this and read that, you know, school work. I have developed a terrible habit of procrastinating. I will get an assignment a week or two in advance, but what do I do? I wait until the night before it is due and I stay up all night working on it. Why do I do this? I have no idea. I have plenty to do, don’t get me wrong, but I also have plenty of time to complete my assignments. I only work two days a week, but for some reason, I procrastinate.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make some changes. I was tired of being stressed out, tired of being tired from staying up all night doing school work, and tired of turning in assignments that were not up to par. So, I did something radical: I started working on and completing assignments before they were due. What a marvel idea…

So far, it has worked out pretty well. I am caught up on all of my assignments for the week, and this week, I plan to complete all of my assignments for my online class. The assignments aren’t due until Dec. 2, but if I go ahead and do everything now, I can enjoy my Thanksgiving break. Or, better yet, I can go to sleep on Dec. 1 at a decent hour.

Last week was midterms, and instead of waiting until the last minute to study for the three exams I had, I started studying over the weekend. My stress level and grades improved dramatically. I actually felt like I had learned and accomplished something instead of just memorizing it for the test.

I cannot claim this idea as my own. My mom was really the motivating factor for this change in my study habits. I took her advice and started working on assignments as I got them. I think she grew weary of every time she talked to me, I was frantically trying to finish a paper or cram for a test. Because I have my newly adopted study habits, Mom and I actually have conversations instead of me being in panic mode trying to figure out what’s left to do because now it’s all done.

I also organized my notebook for my classes because it resembled a trailer park in a tornado. There were papers stuck here and there, nothing was in order, and I could never find what I was looking for. Half the time, what I actually needed was at home because I was too unorganized to remember to bring it with me to class.

There are roughly six weeks left in the semester, and I plan on continuing my scholastic progress. Procrastination is not my friend, but organization is. I am less stressed and I actually look forward to class because I am not so worried about assignments and whether or not I forgot to do something.

An overload of assignments is no longer a problem.

I have completely lost my motivation this semester and I’m not sure if I want it back.

For the first two years of college, I had a certain degree of concentration that pushed me to become the best student I could ever be. But as my stay here at Augusta State University drags on, I find myself, well, unmotivated.

In high school I was never the scholar. Sure, I took some advanced placement classes to make myself more marketable to colleges, but I never applied myself to the best of my ability in my four years of high school. I played football and was more concerned with what the guys were doing on the weekend than I was with what X equals on my math tests. I didn’t care in the classroom and it took a toll on my grade point average.

My college choices were limited because of my parent’s income. While many of my friends went off to larger universities, I decided to stick with the cheap route by staying at home and attending Augusta State. Little did I know the decision to stay was perhaps the best in my young academic career.

With most of my friends out of town, I had little distractions. I didn’t have to ponder what to do on the weekends because I had little else to do than work. My course load was small for the first two semesters of my freshman year which left me with more time to manage my homework and study time. Needless to say, my morale grew as did my GPA.

As my sophomore year rolled around, I decided that I could manage a larger course load and upped the ante to 17 hours per semester. Though highly stressful, I managed to fare even better than in my first year and my confidence was sky high.

That is, until the start of my junior year. Now I find it hard to motivate myself to work at the level I did in my first two years.

I procrastinate and lose sleep over assignments that I should be doing rather than surf the Internet. I’ve begun to doubt myself and my abilities though I can still look back and see that I was once capable of rolling out As like nobody’s business.

So where do I go from here? I suppose there is a point that comes during the semester where I snap out of it and jump back on the learning express. However, at this moment I struggle to find time to do much of anything.

Often I tell myself that today is the day I will finish all my assignments ahead of time only to pass out from exhaustion, wake up and say, “Well, I do have until Friday to finish this.”

I honestly think it is just a phase I am going through at the moment. If I was capable of ascending from these thoughts before, why can’t I again?

So, it’s back to the drawing board. Time to figure what works and what doesn’t because I refuse to be caught in this fog of laziness. I have made it this far in my academics, and there is no turning back. I came here with a purpose, and I do not expect to leave until that is accomplished.

There is just so much that I could be accomplishing, but so little time in the day.