Food, it’s not just for breakfast anymore — or lunch or dinner, for that matter.

In American culture, there is a huge emphasis on food. There are entire television shows, TV networks and magazines solely devoted to food and cooking. The sizzles and aromas of food have completely pervaded American media and daily life, grabbing the attention and appetites of people across the nation.

“Food is definitely overvalued,” said Christian Lemmon, a professor at Georgia Health Sciences University and head of the GHSU eating disorders program. “Food is no longer seen as a means to survival.”

Yet with this emphasis on food in America and its growing recreational use, what determines the dividing line separating a passion for food versus an obsession over food?

For Jeff Freehoff, chef and owner of a local Italian eatery, the Garlic Clove, food is a passion. Before devoting his life to cooking, he said that he just happened to fall into the food world as a 16-year-old when he worked as a fry cook in a Chinese restaurant.

“Back then we didn’t have the Food Network and all that exposure,” Freehoff said. “I just kind of fell into a cook’s job and I really loved it, I was good at it and I just kind of stuck with it. When it came time to start thinking about college, it kind of dawned on me like, ‘Hey, people make a career out what I’m already doing,’ so that’s when I decided to go to culinary school.”

Freehoff began studying culinary arts at Johnson and Wales College in Providence, R.I., in 1983. After he graduated, he said he established his connection with Italian cuisine.

“One of my first chef jobs out of culinary school was at an Italian restaurant,” he said. “I just always loved it, and I’ve kind of stuck with it most of my career. I think the freshness of the ingredients and the Mediterranean flair to it have just always intrigued me.”

When Freehoff and his family moved to the Augusta area eight years ago, he brought his culinary career with him, opening Cutie Pies, a pot pie café, in 2005 and the Garlic Clove in 2007.

“We were running both for a while,” he said. “Later we decided to sell Cutie Pies and we’ve just been focusing on the Garlic Clove. And we’re just about ready to hit our five-year anniversary.”

Explaining his passion for food, Freehoff said he loved being able to serve his community and provide people with new experiences.

“I love the ability to create something new and filling the needs of the customer,” he said. “And getting the reaction of ‘This is the best I’ve ever had,’ is just really fulfilling.”

Going beyond a healthy appetite, Dayna Macy, author of the book “Ravenous: a Food Lover’s Journey from Obession to Freedom,” touched on the subtle difference between passion and obsession.

“It’s like the difference between love and lust,” she said. “I think when you’re obsessed about something, you have a compulsion to acquire it in some form, and when you’re passionate about something you love it, but you don’t try to own it.”

As it pertains to food, Macy said that if someone has an obsession over food, he or she may be unable to stop eating, whereas a passion for food is characterized by enjoyment and contentment.

Macy explained that, for a period of her life, she fell into food obsession, but she worked to find a way out of her obsession, cataloging the journey in her book.

“I write about various obsessions I have, which are with chocolate, cheese and olives,” she said. “But I’d say the change came through a continued mindfulness practice around food.”

She said the antidote to obsession is mindfulness. Maintaining mindfulness about food is difficult, but it’s doable. She attributed a lack of mindfulness to distractions and multitasking with eating.

“There are some standard practices in mindfulness, like turning off the TV when you eat, stopping your distractions,” she said. “When you eat, you eat. Another is putting a certain amount of food on your plate and slowing down your eating, so that you’re able to enjoy what’s on this plate and not just shoveling it in and then wondering when your second helping is coming.”

By being more mindful about one’s behavior surrounding food, she said that person can move from obsession, discovering what he or she is truly passionate about.

“Some of the foods that I was obsessed over, I’m still passionate about,” Macy said. “Olives are my favorite food in the entire world. I adore them. The difference now is that I don’t sit down and eat 30. I sit down and eat six.”

Macy and Lemmon both recognized that food can become an obsession because it is so easy to use food as a way to cope.

“A lot of us come from homes where when we were kids, sometimes we were given food to sooth us,” Lemmon said. “For example, Johnny falls down and hurts his knee, Mom says, ‘Oh, here, let’s go get an ice cream.’ Those kinds of things are learned over time.”

Although this learned practice isn’t necessarily healthy, he said it acts effectively as a coping strategy.

“Eating distracts you from what you’re thinking and feeling, and it also releases neurotransmitters in your brain that don’t necessarily make you feel better, but they make you feel less worse,” he said.

In order to break from the cycle, Lemmon agreed with Macy with being more mindful of one’s habits and emotions.

Macy emphasized the power that the mind has in these behaviors.

“Our mind habits are really what determine a lot of our health,” she said. “That compulsive quality is really habit and habits can change.”

Between the roll of the dice, the trip of the river, and the hitting the number, the difference between debt and wealth could be a game away.

Gambling can take many different forms, whether a person plays Powerball, poker, ceelo or bet on a sports game, a person generally plays with the expectation to win a prize.  Cities like Las Vegas and Atlantic City are known for being gambling friendly and helping their respective states with revenue.  States like Georgia and South Carolina have been known for education lotteries.  ESPN began airing the World Series of Poker in 2006.  With the amount of money involved, is it possible to gamble just for fun?

Doug Wilder, president and CEO of Across America Inc., has been gambling since 1962.  Wilder was introduced to poker by his father, who would play with a group of friends.  While Wilder has played for pots (winnings) as big as $10,000 and plays in Vegas yearly, Wilder prefers to play Texas Hold ‘em casually with friends at Mi Rancho on Washington Rd.   He said the difference between Mi Rancho and Las Vegas is the atmosphere.

“The gambling is still the same,” Wilder said.  “Competition is competition.  When you play with your friends multiple times, you start learning how they play, what strategies they use.  When you go to Vegas, everybody’s new.  I play the cards and the position, which is a strategy in it of itself.  Some people are good at reading others but that’s something that is so blown up that everybody is like a statue these days.”

Wilder often goes to play in out-of-state with a friend in which he refers to as a small whale, a name given to people that play for large sums of money, unlike casual players.

“He’s retired,” Wilder said.  “He does it for enjoyment or else he wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Wilder and his friend had a handler in Vega, who accompanies “the whale” to ensure that they continue to play, and offered free tickets to a Dodgers game.

“So they drive a limo, which is how they pick him up from the casino to the air port, put him on a private jet, flew him to L.A., limousine to Dodger stadium and back again like it was an evening jaunt to dinner,” Wilder said.  “But then again, you need to have that kind of money to win or lose.”

Playing poker in Vegas is a big deal for many players and Wilder said there was an amateur poker league in Augusta that could get a player there.

“There was a league sponsored by the World Poker Amateur League,” Wilder said.  “There were half a dozen bars in town where you had a poker game every night of the week.  The Doghouse is where they originally started next to Monterrey’s on Washington Rd.  Of course it doesn’t exist anymore.”

Wilder said in the leagues’ heyday there would be over 90 poker players at one time and a waiting list of additional players.   Players would gain points for winning a tournament each week.  Monthly and annual tournament winners would have a chance to qualify for nationals.

“My wife and I both qualified for the nationals one year in Orlando,” Wilder said.  “The winner of that got a $100,000 seat buy-in to the Vegas world championship where you can win millions of dollars.”

While poker is popular among social settings for social gambling, video poker is becoming more popular in commercial gambling.  Sergeant Richard Elim of Richmond County Sheriff Department’s (RCSD)  said that many legal rulings on video poker machines have been made, with illegal video poker surging after South Carolina closed their poker machines in 2000.  The video poker machines themselves are not illegal as long as the store has an amusement license, but the prizes that get paid out can cause legal issues.  According to Georgia code 16-12-35 (otherwise known as the Chuck E Cheese clause), playing for non-cash prizes is acceptable such as store credit, gift cards, and tickets.

“(A gambler) does not sit in a store for ten minutes playing for store credit,” Elim said.  “They are not sitting there for their health.  They are there because they are playing for cash.”

RCSD receives some cooperation with local merchants regarding illegal activity. Stores will get one warning and if illegal activity still continues, there will be an undercover investigation.   Elim said that store owners claim to use the machines to supplement the losses, but others make a clear profit as much as $3000 a day.

However the major concern for the department is online poker.  Unlike state-sponsored lotteries, there is no oversight committee to ensure fairness in that no one can artificially set the odds.   Elim said that offenders of online betting think placing bets on foreign sites gets them around the law and the state is currently working to add a federal component to the law.   While Wilder does not play online poker, he sees this game the same as any other form of gambling.

“I don’t believe there’s any harm in the poker leagues that exist locally,” Wilder said.  “I know there have been some political discussions about them and I just don’t see why gambling as a whole shouldn’t be legalized in the state of Georgia or South Carolina.  Gambling was legal in South Carolina and then they shut it down two or three years ago.  If you can go buy tickets and gamble, why can’t you play poker and gamble?”

T. Daniel Barber

Advanced Reporting

[email protected]

Students and faculty stopped in their tracks between classes Tuesday last week to listen to a preacher’s hell-fire message.

The gospel, according to Matthew “Brother Matt” Bourgault, a campus-touring preacher, was received as hateful and harsh to students. He preached contrary to a merciful interpretation of Jesus Christ’s message, yelling that, because of their engagement in sexual activity, homosexuality and drug use, they were all going to hell.

“You live by your glands instead of by your heart,” he shouted. “You live by your senses and not by your souls.”

Bourgault began preaching at 11:30 a.m. in the amphitheater, eventually moving in front of the Jaguar Students Activities Center, yelling at students on their way to class. With his declarations that students were going to hell, it did not take long for a crowd to surround him. Taking his message as a personal affront, students matched Bourgault’s hostility.

When students challenged his authority, asking him, “Who are you to judge?” and “Have you ever sinned?”  Bourgault answered that he had been made perfect by God’s grace.

“I am free, free, free!” he shouted. “The only free you have is a free fall to hell!”

Students cheered in pride or laughed in mockery when Bourgault accused students of being “sodomites” and “godless.” He often resorted to insults, calling female students “whores” for the way they dressed, overweight students “gluttons” and, in one case, addressing one student as a “cigarette-sucking masturbator.” As a result, many students hurled insults back.

Other students chose not to engage Bourgault but to instead observe the demonstration and counter-demonstration.

“He has his own right to be here, but a lot of what he’s saying is obscene,” said William Parsons, a junior Spanish major at Augusta State. “The students are being hostile because he’s going about it the wrong way.”

Courtney Erbland, a freshman photography and print-making major and self-proclaimed Christian, said she was having a difficult time listening to Bourgault’s message.

“It’s hard to watch someone undoing everything you’re trying to do here,” she explained. “He’s condemning people when God forgives people.”

Officers from the Department of Public Safety were sent to the event after Jasper Cooke, director of Public Safety, said he and several officers had received complaints about Bourgault’s presence. Cooke said he sent some officers to check out the event in order to make sure no violence would break out. Officers responded to student complaints by saying Bourgault was granted permission to be on campus and was exercising his First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly.

“Free speech is something that we all take for granted,” Cooke said. “And so we just have to understand that, as citizens, free speech is not always the views we want to hear.”

Officers told students that if they were offended by Bourgault’s message, they should walk away and ignore him.

“We tell folks, ‘It’s a free country,” Cooke said. “‘They have a right to do what they’re doing just so long as they stay within the box and the guidelines that’s given to them by the university and the court. And you have a right to either listen or leave.’ Most of the time, it takes two people to carry on a conversation. If everyone walks by and goes about with their business, (speakers like this) don’t hang around long because there’s no satisfaction in standing up there talking to yourself… I’ve found that with groups like this, if you don’t give them an audience, they don’t stick around long and they don’t come back. ”

However, most students remained and tried to engage Bourgault. As the demonstration progressed, Bourgault’s and the students’ hostility toward one another began to escalate. He began focusing on homosexuality, stating that that the “feminine spirit” was among the men at the college and the “masculine spirit” among its women. Calling for their repentance, he began singing, “It’s not okay to be gay. It’s not in your DNA.”

One openly-gay student replied, “I went to church and prayed for five years, and I didn’t change.” Afterward, he started yelling and humming loudly to drown out Bourgault’s message. In further protest against his presence on campus, students began holding up mirrors they found in the art department in a symbolic gesture meant to emphasize Bourgault’s hypocrisy. One student said he brought the mirrors so Bourgault could “see his own image” and make him feel like he was preaching to himself.

Bourgault’s sermon eventually devolved into a shouting match with students until he stopped and walked away from campus, ending his presentation at 3:30 p.m. His exit was accompanied by student applause and taunts for him not to come back.

Joe Webber, lieutenant of Public Safety, said this was a new occurrence at Augusta State and students weren’t sure how to respond. Like the rest of the officers present, he told students to leave if they didn’t like Bourgault’s message.

Webber said that people like Bourgault are solely interested in getting attention. While this experience may be new for Augusta State students, Webber explained that in his years at the University of Georgia, people would come and preach and protest on a weekly basis. There, the students are so used to this happening that they walk on by without batting an eyelash.

Cooke said demonstrators like Bourgault rarely come to Augusta State, or any other schools in the Central Savannah River Area.

“But I think this guy had so much fun (Tuesday) that I really think he’ll be back,” Cooke said. “Honestly I do. I think he felt like he made some inroads in getting people upset, and I really think he’ll be back.”

Despite graduating as a two-time national golf champion, senior golfer Brendan Gillins said he is ready to leave the game behind and pursue a different career.

Gillins, a native of Savannah, Ga., said he does not want to make the jump from collegiate to professional golf. He understands that the professional game is a totally different world.

“There is a complete different level between college and professional golf,” Gillins said. “I would rather have fun playing as an amateur than to play professionally and fall on my face.”

Gillins said he started playing golf around age 10, and his family was a big reason he started playing.

“One of my uncles played golf in college in Texas,” Gillins said. “They were a big influence on me, and I picked up the sport from them.”

Perhaps one of the best things about golf is being able to compete and hang out with friends, Gillins said. But golf brings its challenges as well.

“You have to have a lot of patience because it’s a very difficult sport,” Gillins said. “If you don’t have patience you are not going to get very far in golf because it takes time to get good.”

After Gillins graduated from high school in 2007, former golf head coach Josh Gregory recruited Gillins to play at Augusta State University. Gillins said Gregory was one of the main reasons he wanted to play for the Jaguars.

“He seemed like a really genuine guy and a fun person to play for,” Gillins said. “Out of all the places I looked, (Augusta State) seemed like the best fit for me.”

Gillins soon realized he made the right choice, as the Jaguars’ golf team, which won the national championship in 2010 and 2011, became the first since the University of Houston to win back-to-back national titles.

“It was a dream come true for me,” Gillins said. “I never would have imagined winning back-to-back championships when I came to college.”

While Gillins would love to complete a threepeat, he said he understands the pressure of trying to accomplish this task. However, he is hoping they will get hot during the tournament and play up to their expectations.

Gillins said he loves helping his younger teammates when they are playing. Gillins said he will always cherish the friendships that he made while he was at Augusta State.

His current head coach, Kevin McPherson, said he cannot express how much Gillins means to the team.

“He brings up some things to the freshman that they never even thought about,” McPherson said. “His course management is really well, and he helps the other guys manage their way around the golf course.”

While Gillins worked hard to achieve success on the golf course, McPherson said he was putting the same amount of effort into his studies.

“He is a straight A student in his classes,” McPherson said. “I think he has only made one B since he has been in school. He usually has 100 percent in all of his classes.”

Gillins is graduating with a double major in mathematics and physics and is thinking about going to graduate school. He doesn’t know which career he will choose but said he wants to have freedom.

“I wouldn’t mind being a doctor, radiologist or a college professor teaching a couple of classes,” Gillins said. “I want to be able to have a lot of free time and do what I want to do.”

Gillins will always be a fan of golf and plans to cheer on his teammates should they decide to attempt to reach the professional level, he said.

While other college seniors eagerly count the days until graduation, senior exhibition students are busy finishing, planning and executing their final college showcases, the culmination of four years worth of hard work.

All art majors at Augusta State University must take senior exhibition, a class meant to equip students with the skills necessary to become successful art professionals.  Its main objective is to teach students the ins and outs of the art world, said Regina Brejda, a senior art major, who is currently enrolled in the class.

“The number one thing that this class is setting us up for is having a solo exhibition,” Brejda said.  “Taking the work that we’ve been working on for the past four years in the art department and saying, this is the crème de la crème of what I’ve done since I’ve been here.  This is what I’m willing to show my audience, and this is what I kind of want to – I don’t want to sound cheesy – but leave a legacy for, leave a legacy of.”

Maleeha Ahmad, a senior psychology and photography double-major, further explained that the course is more than just another core requirement.  It provides proof that students have grown as artists as a result of completing Augusta State’s art program.

“Senior exhibition is not just the culmination of your B.A. or your B.S.A. degree, well it is that, but also (it’s) preparing you for the real world or the career or whatever you want to do afterwards art-related,” Ahmad explained.  “It’s… helping you articulate your artwork because, as artists, we visually represent our ideas.”

In addition to creating the artwork itself, students are required to compose a brief statement about the pieces they choose to feature.  Generally about one page long, Brejda said the statements provide a basic overview of the artists and their works.

“Your artist statement gives a small portion of your inner workings what it is that makes you tick, why you do it,” Brejda elaborated.  “Why are you more interesting than the next guy; what sets you apart from everyone else?”

Jennifer Onofrio, a professor of art who taught senior exhibition for four consecutive years, said being able to communicate the ideas behind a work is almost as important as creating the work itself.  She described the artist statement as an attempt to appeal to both non-art audiences and art audiences while maintaining the integrity of the works.

“One of the reasons they have to write the articulate artist statement is (to learn) how do they talk about their work to sell themselves if they’re going to try and apply for scholarships, fellowships, residencies, graduate schools,” Onofrio said.  “All of those are opportunities that they’re interested in pursuing as a professional or furthering their educations, they have to be able to present a cohesive body of work and be able to write about it and talk about it.  If they can’t do that, they’re going to have a hard time getting opportunities.”

Creating a cohesive body of work is the main goal, Onofrio explained.  Professors do not want to see students’ works from lower level courses because the point of senior exhibitions is to show that students are ready for the next level, whether that is applying to graduate school or showing in professional venues.

Ahmad likened senior exhibitions to other degree programs’ theses, claiming that art professors’ high expectations of their students help ease the transition into professionalism.  Similarly, senior exhibitions serve as an inauguration of sorts into the art world on a larger scale.

“You’re not just a student (anymore),” she said.  “You’re on that line of being a student and being professional or being an artist.”

One of the most surprising things to people outside the department is how much time and effort goes into creating and exhibiting artwork.  Onofrio said she had several non-major students drop her lower-level classes because they did not understand the commitment they would have to make if they wanted their work to be good enough to earn high grades.

“Each studio class is a five-hour commitment for each class per week,” Onofrio explained.  “So if they’re taking this course (senior exhibition) plus three studio classes that means 15 hours per week they’re in class contact time.  Then they have to match that 15 hours per week outside of class doing lab time.”

Kelli Brooks, senior general arts major, said she spends much of her spare time inside the studio working on her pieces.

“It’s not like a math class (where) if you get it, you don’t need to study,” the senior clarified.  “You have to be in that studio regardless of if you’re done with all your projects because (it is) that time on that sheet of paper that shows you were in there, even if all your requirements are done.”

This mandatory time in the studio inevitably causes the artists to analyze and tweak their pieces, attempting to perfect the work they thought was finished.  But, in actuality, the senior artists are “never really done” with their pieces, Onofrio said; there is always room for improvement on technique and execution.

Brooks said she created several different resumes aimed at different audiences in hope of securing a job or fellowship after graduation, and many of her classmates have done the same.  Although they said they are looking forward to what the future has in store for them, for the time being Brooks and her fellow seniors are focused on perfecting their final college exhibitions.

“You pretty much wake up thinking about all the 500 things you have to do,” Brooks said.  “You aren’t sleeping because you’re thinking about everything you have to do.  And if you are awake, you aren’t awake enough to do the things you have to do.”

Senior exhibition receptions began March 29 in the on-campus Mary S. Byrd Gallery and continues through the beginning of May in various galleries throughout Augusta, Ga.

“As a lesbian, I’m tired of the attempt to label and include every sexuality that isn’t heterosexuality.”

First we were the ‘gays’ then we were ‘the gay community’ then we were the LGB community and then another letter got added, then another until we’ve arrived at this alphabet soup of an acronym LGBTQQIA. As a lesbian, I’m tired of the attempt to label and include every sexuality that isn’t heterosexuality.

Up until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t aware that another “Q” was added to the already one letter too long acronym. Furthermore, I had to research what the other newly added letters, “I” and “A” stood for. Apparently the letters stand for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Ally.

I appreciate the effort from whoever thought that every label a non-heterosexual can be called should be added to the acronym, however it’s not necessary, really. I know everyone likes to be included and as politically correct as some people think all “34,000” letters in the acronym are, it actually doesn’t make the group more inclusive, just more ridiculous and that leads to even more exclusion.

Quite frankly, I feel like a loser to be included in part of this ridiculously long acronym. I would actually rather be called a non-heterosexual than identify as anything that might get added to the acronym.

Let’s break it down and decide if all of these extra letters are actually needed, shall we?

So LESBIAN is considered to be the “politically correct” term referring to gay females; however, as a gay female, I actually prefer to be called gay rather than lesbian, or better yet, how about just Ashley?

The term GAY is generally used when referring to gay males, but in my circle of friends, most of the gay males actually identify as queer. Ironically enough, that letter is actually another letter in the “alphabet soup.” Does that mean we are now playing favorites by letting gay boys have two letters in the acronym or is there another gender of homosexual people I’m not aware of?

Next we have TRANSGENDERED, which seems to be an appropriate letter for a change. For those of you who don’t know what transgendered means, it means that a person who was born with the genitalia of a certain sex, but identifies as the other sex internally. Or for a better example, a person born a boy, who acts, thinks, and dresses as a girl or vice versa.

As we said before, QUEER is equivalent to GAY, so now, that leaves us with the other “Q” in the alphabet, QUESTIONING.

Why do we need questioning? If you are questioning, then you shouldn’t have your own letter. I’m sorry. You should wait to figure out which letter you identify as. That’s like adding a K for Katy Perry because she kissed a girl and liked it.

The LGBT community has been fighting for 30 plus years for people to understand that homosexuality is NOT a choice. Questioning implies that someone is choosing whether or not he/she is gay. Questioning goes against everything I identify as and fight for. Therefore, the second Q is not necessary.

Next we have INTERSEX. Why does that belong in the phrase/acronym/alphabet soup?

According to www.intersexualite.com, many people with intersex identify as gay or lesbian, but also, at the same time, many intersex adults find the issue of homosexuality irrelevant to their perception of themselves. Therefore, I’m fairly positive that intersex is another wasted letter.

So what about an ALLY? It’s nice to include everyone, but I don’t think that people who support homosexuality should be included in the acronym. It’s great that they support homosexuality, but we are not fighting for the equality of allies, they already are equal. Allies have the legal right to be married, vote, pay taxes and everything. We are fighting for the equality of lesbian/bi/gay/transgendered peoples. It’s as simple as that.

Lastly, we have BI. There are a lot of mixed feelings and emotions about bisexuals. I admit, I too have mixed emotions about bisexuals. In my opinion, there are two types of bisexuals… one type that is attracted to the person regardless of her/his gender, and there is the Lindsay Lohan’s of the world who find a cute lesbian that looks like a boy, experiments with them, has a good time (of course), and then calls themselves a bisexual because they were attracted to one girl. But when a bisexual person is dating the same sex that person is gay to the world, so why do we need the letter?

As for ALLY, well, as they say in kindergarten, you get a gold sticker for supporting your gay friends and family. But you shouldn’t get a letter in the acronym. Just because you marched beside me in the Pride Parade doesn’t mean you’ve experienced the sort of discrimination a gay person has. When we give you a letter, we make a mockery of ourselves.

And that is my point. This trail of letters is about as silly as a bathhouse. We may as well start adding letters for all groups that feel ostracized whether or not it’s for who their members like to sleep with. Hermaphrodites, asexuals, and Muslim fundamentalist groups, please apply to get your letter, too! At one point these letters worked as one voice to make it safe to be openly gay, but not it’s clearly become a sick game to make everyone feel included. Our community takes a step backward in our fight for equality every time a letter gets added. Just think about that.

From a Young Age:

Behind the image of a successful doctor is a person who enjoys working with his hands and spending time with his family.

This man is Ricardo Azziz, the president of Georgia Health Sciences University, and future president of the newly merged universities. Azziz, a native of Uruguay, had an interesting childhood, where he moved from Uruguay to Costa Rico to Puerto Rico. By growing up in different countries, Azziz said he developed a unique perspective on life.

“It also gave you a level of uncertainty about time and place, so that you needed to be sure you had a very strong internal foundation and emotional foundation because you couldn’t count on being in the same place forever,” Azziz said.  “You couldn’t count on knowing your friends for 20 years. You couldn’t count on really understanding the culture of the place that much; you had to actually adapt fairly quickly.”

As to why he constantly moved around as a child, Azziz said it was due to his father’s choice of a lifestyle, even though in the beginning, he thought it was for another reason entirely.

“Well, for a long time I thought maybe my dad was a spy,” Azziz said jokingly. “But the answer is no. My dad is a physicist, and he really is sort of almost nomadic in his approach to life. He just sort of, after a little while gets up and moves. Although, by the time I was 32 I had moved 32 times in my life and I have no idea why exactly he decided to move that much.”

This constant moving around also created some very important events in Azziz’s life. One of those events involved him being sent back to his home country at age 10, to be taken in by his 16-year-old aunt who he had never met before and other relatives in Uruguay.

“My father, in order to make sure that I didn’t lose any time in school, sent me to Uruguay by myself with my nine-year-old brother,” he said. “I had been living in a very protected environment in Pittsburgh, going to Catholic school, and so that was something that was extraordinarily different to me. I was all of a sudden free and could roam the small town on a bicycle. It was freedom.”

Although there was a newly found freedom for him and his younger brother, there was a lot of resistance they encountered being from the United States and living in a foreign country.

“At the same time I was also part of that hated Yankee group, this was in the late 60s when there was a tremendous amount of revolution going on in South America,” Azziz said. “So I was also the enemy at that particular time.”

Besides being considered an enemy during his time in Uruguay, Azziz also witnessed an important event that affected his life.

“Later on, a couple years later I ended up being the sole living witness for the kidnapping of an ex-minister of agriculture in Uruguay by the urban guerilla movement at the time. That was of course very impressive on me because it really just highlighted the fact that one day you’re here and the next day you’re gone.”

Personal Passions:

Traveling is something that Azziz has continued to do throughout his life and has become a way for him to bond with his oldest daughter Ashlee, a sophomore communications major at Augusta State University. She said traveling is something they have done together for many years, and those trips have made some of her favorite memories with her father.

“Every summer, he and I go on a trip out of the country together,” Ashlee Azziz said. “We’ve been doing that since I was 12. We’ve gone to Denmark, London, Buenos Aires (and) a lot of places. It’s really helped us just get closer because I am older than my other siblings by six and eight years, so it is more difficult. It’s been really good to be able to spend some alone time and quality time with him during the summers for the last six or seven years.”

Besides influencing an enjoyment of travel, Azziz said his parents were a big influence on him artistically. They were very artistic and involved with graphic arts, but because they were self-trained, they did not pursue a professional career in art. However, they did believe art was a way to enhance society, so they made sure art and music was a part of their lives.

As an artist himself, the university president has an extensive collection of his pieces done in his preferred medium of choice.

“I do pen and ink for reasons that actually are unclear,” Azziz said. “But I will tell you it probably it began because in my early years. I did a lot of cartooning, and I did a lot of work doing cartoons for newspapers and those kind of things.”

He said his perspectives come from all the traveling and moving he has done, because it allows him to see things differently and create his art. When it comes time for him to create his works, he has two different approaches by either putting an image from his head onto paper, or simply letting his mind rest and have his hand to the work.

Cynthia Azziz, his wife of 15 years, said when her husband is working on his pieces he enjoys playing different types of music to help set his mood.

“When he does make the opportunity he is very excited,” she said. “He gets everything else set up so he doesn’t have to stop once he gets started, and he always works to music, always. It seems like he goes for old bands like ZZ Top, people of this nature who typically have a lot of rhythm, a lot of changing. I have no idea what that does for him, (but) I always enjoy it because that’s from my era.”

Azziz said he also does creative writing, in several fields, but when he’s not busy working on his art or writing, another major hobby he enjoys is working on cars, which is something he has done since he was a child.

“I love old cars, I tend to like to work on them,” Azziz said. “I don’t particularly get them to just sort of store, I work on them. My biggest project ever was a 1957 Chevy truck that I did a complete frame off restoration and a number of other cars. I love restoring things, I like fixing things.”

His wife said her husband worked on his 1957 Chevy truck for 13 years and would not put anything on it that was not original. After restoring it to pristine condition they moved to California and had to sell the Chevy due to the lack of parking spaces. Cynthia Azziz said when he is working on cars he develops a certain type of attitude.

“It (working on cars) is a love of his,” his wife said. “He helped his father work on cars growing up, they were always doing something to work on the cars, (either) preventative maintenance or something to make them work better. It wasn’t necessarily restoring cars like he (did) with the ‘57. It’s something he enjoys very much.”

His Career: Another Personal Passion?

Besides working on his art and cars, Azziz also enjoys spending time working on his creative writing.

“I do a lot of scientific writing and I’m extensively published in that area,” Azziz said. “Some people may not consider that to be very creative, but there is some creativity involved in that. But I also have a number of writing projects that I’m working on at my home related to various parts of my life and perspective.”

The writing projects he is working on vary and will cover different events and important things for him that have occurred throughout his life, Azziz said. Some material for his writing includes his patients, because they have stories that he said he believes need to be told.

“My specialty is really examining women who have excess hormones and what you would commonly call many women who are bearded,” Azziz said. “I have a tremendous compassion for these women and really, I think that their stories need to be written, and that’s something I’m working on.”

When these writing projects will be completed is uncertain, but projects similar to this will always be on Azziz’s horizon in the future.

“He says he can see himself slowing down, but whatever he’s doing, I can guarantee he’ll be very busy and work hard at doing it,” Cynthia said. “I think the word retirement for him is completely different definition from what most people would classify as retirement and I don’t see him being retired in 10 years either. Whatever he’s doing, he’ll go in full steam ahead. If we ever get to the point of retiring, I see him still teaching part-time and having plenty of time to do art and write.”

Azziz has a love for work and learning that is admirable. His daughter said it leads her to wonder, just like her step-mom, if he will actually retire.

“I don’t know if he’ll ever retire, honestly,” she said. “He says he wants to, but he loves working too much. Even when he says he’s retiring, he says he wants to go back to school and get a master’s in art history (and) I definitely see him doing that. That’s one strange thing that I wish him and I had in common, I like school but he loves school.”

What the future holds for Azziz is unclear, but in 10 years he said he hopes he will still be in Augusta.

“I hope that I am here, at this great new university; that we will look back, and we will be very proud about all the things we have accomplished,” Azziz said. “The fact that the students will be incredibly proud about what we have been able to achieve.”

His daughter however, has a different idea concerning the future of her father.

“I see him as the president of Harvard or some ivy league,” she said. “I think that’s what he will do until he retires. I think that this (the merger) is his job of the century. My dad loves to fix things. He’s not the type of person that wants to go to a university that’s already the best. He wants to go to a university that he can make the best and that’s actually one of the main reasons he choose to come here was because he knew he could take something that isn’t great and make it amazing.”

Although the Masters had drawn to a close, golf fans and out-of-towners alike were able to enjoy the CSRA’s next best thing.

More than 60 schools from across the country competed in the sixth annual National Collegiate Disc Golf Championships at the Hippodrome in North Augusta, S.C., this month. Allen Cain, Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) events manager and general manager of this year’s collegiate tournament, said that the event owes its success to national disc golf champion Pete May.

“Not only is he a great disc golfer, but he’s also the founder of this tournament,” Cain said. “He wanted to come up with a (collegiate) event that could be held every year; one that would draw the world of disc golf to Augusta (Ga.).”

May has served as the tournament’s chairman for the past five years, but at the age of 71, he has decided to hand the reigns over to his son Derek for this year’s championships. Cain said that May has gone out of his way to establish the sport of disc golf in Augusta.

“Augusta is quickly becoming the mecca of disc golf as whole,” Cain said of the sport. “The growth of collegiate disc golf has really taken an upswing in the last three years.”

The tournament, which, according to Cain, has seen a massive influx of registered teams since 2009, also boosts tourism and traffic into the city.

“We always run our collegiate championship the weekend after the Masters,” Cain said. “Augusta is a great place for the championships because everyone’s fueled on golf. They understand the game of golf. Disc golf is played the same way, except with different equipment.”

Cain said that being able to feed off the town’s energy from the Masters and then transmit that energy into the national collegiate championship has proven successful for both the PDGA and the world of disc golf. He also said that the collegiate event helps bring revenue into the city.

“The Masters has a huge economic impact on the city, but we’ve also seen an economic impact just as far as our event goes,” Cain said. “I mean, we’re up to 316 players on our roster, plus they bring friends and caddies. And usually, the Ramada, our host hotel this year, is mostly empty after the Masters. But now we’re filling up those rooms again with this tournament.”

Augusta State University’s leadership coordinator Elizabeth Shorts said that she was not entirely sure whether the championships benefit from the Masters Tournament directly, but more importantly, she stated that Augusta State’s disc golf team had been previously operating under the school’s name without authorization.

“They were using the Augusta State name when they weren’t supposed to be,” Shorts laughed. “We were not registered with the PDGA. We had a group of students who would go out and play games before they were chartered last spring, and they just took it upon themselves to use the name ‘Augusta State University.’ They were not recognized, they were not funded and they were not sanctioned was an official university. It wasn’t until they were officially registered last spring that they were allowed to use our name officially.”

As far as the tournament itself is concerned, Cain said that spectators were able to see the same standard of traditional rivalries this year. For instance, the 2011 champions from the University of Oregon, who finished fifth in 2012, faced off against third-place finisher Augusta State in a “rivalry round” with a doubles format where both teams will play an entire round on the same tee simultaneously. But Cain said that Oregon and Augusta State were just one of this year’s many rivalries.

“I wouldn’t say they (were) the biggest rivalry this year,” Cain divulged. “The competitive level in collegiate disc golf has really grown this year. Clemson and Georgia Tech also have a rivalry between themselves and they’ve been playing matches against each other throughout the year. The Universities of Georgia and South Carolina also have a pretty good rivalry. Basically every natural school rivalry you can think of is still apparent in disc golf and it always leads to a bit of joking and jostling amongst the teams.”

Cain also said that with the addition of new schools registering to play in this year’s qualifying round, the National Collegiate Disc Golf Union (NCDGU) has implemented a new rule to sift out low-ranking teams.

“Because we’re having so many teams come out to play this year, we’ve decided to make a cut,” Cain said. “After our (main) singles match, we (had) a round of doubles and then two more rounds of singles. After the final round of singles, the top twenty teams (continued) to play on through the tournament.”

Coinciding with the tournament was the Savannah River Spring Fling, a side event designated to entertain spectators who break away from watching the game.

“In the past, we’ve had a few spectators that come out and watch the tournament for a little bit, and they really didn’t know what else to do, so they left,” Cain said. “This year, we wanted to keep them at the course a little longer and give them something to do; some way to relax and have a good time. So we’re running the Savannah River Spring Fling to focus on sports and games for an entire family to partake in.”

Cain said the Fling was held alongside the championship at the Hippodrome and featured live music, a clogging performance, bounce houses for children to play in, and other side events to keep audiences preoccupied. Cain believed that the Fling will contribute toward the tournament’s growth, something that the events manager has also seen the Internet provide.

“We’re seeing amazing growth,” Cain said. “I did my internship at the PDGA and the whole internship was helping plan the national championship, and I was able to take the same energy and feel that Pete (May) had and take it online. We hadn’t had that in the past. So being online has really garnered us a lot of exposure to teams everywhere, and we’ve begun to see a lot of growth [for disc golf] not just in the Southeast where it’s typically been but all over the country.”

When most people hear the word “Italy” they think of stereotypes, gondola rides, the Coliseum and way too much pasta and pizza.well folks, for once, the stereotype is right.

Recently, several others and I traveled to Italy and explored the country by bus, plane and lots of footwork.  I think I have done the most walking I’ve ever done in the past eight years and climbed so many steps that if I see another one, I would cry.

The first day we arrived  my friend Kelsey and I instantly beelined to a restaurant and, unlike in the states, Italy seems to have a limited choice of what a starving girl can eat.  Let me outline the choices we had in the Jesolo Beach area: pizza with ham, pasta with tomato sauce, pizza without ham and pasta with a different sauce.

I’m exaggerating to a point and even with the limited choices we seemed to have, the food choices we did have tantalized my taste buds.

I don’t want to spend this entire column commenting  on how amazing the sights were in Italy (which they were, of course) and how great the food was (which it was), but it seems to me whenever I go on vacation, especially to a place like Italy, my former self seems to fall away.

Ok, I know, that sounded super ridiculous, especially in describing a trip that lasted a measly week.  But the fact I was around people I did not know, and places I hadn’t seen before, attempting to speak a language that totally sounded like Spanish, brought out someone in me who had more excitement for life than ever before.

Damn, I told myself this column wouldn’t get cheesy, but there it goes.  Moving on, probably the best city on the trip would be Assisi.  Most people might say the Duomo in Florence or the Trevi Fountain in Rome is the most beautiful place in Italy, but no…Assisi was breathtaking.

When the group arrived in Assisi, the small Italian town met every expectation I had of the countryside.  Compared to Florence and Rome, Assisi was a quite, modest town that did not brag and overcrowd itself with millions of tourist junk shops, and the streets weren’t as littered with pigeons, even though they seemed to have a happy home in Italy.

We decided to explore the city a bit instead of staying around the small city center, and we discovered a long path of steps that led to a place unknown to us.  So, like good little journalists, we decided to give in to our curiosity and climb up the steps.

What we discovered beat any expectation I ever had because, right in front of us, huge, green mountains rose and surrounded us. A castle that has seen its heyday stood to the side.  It was a picture that seemed to come out of Google images.  I stood there for a while thinking to myself, this is why I came to Italy.  It was something out of a dream, a quiet one layered by the birds and the once-in-a-lifetime view in front of me.

The rest of Italy had its sights too.  When the group was in Florence and we walked around the corner and saw the Duomo towering over us, it was a sight I couldn’t believe for a while.  People actually managed to build this monstrosity of a building.

While there were some ruffled feathers on the trip, any problem that seemed to arise never brought down the excitement of physically being in Italy.

Overall, I will never regret the weeks before the trip of having $2.32 in my bank account and living off Chef Boyardee for lunch.  Italy will always be memories I bring up whenever someone tells me “think of a happy time in your life.”

 ”Since the United States government has declared war on a plant, it has made it the most valuable plant in the world.”

Fifteen to 20 buds laid across his coffee table, as Norton broke up a nugget of weed and placed it into the socket of his water bong. He put his lips against the top of the bong and as the water bubbled, smoke filled the chamber. Norton pulled the stem out of the bong and inhaled the weed-filled moisture.

He exhaled.

Norton, who prefers to keep his full name anonymous, is a frequent pot smoker and distributor, who got his start as a senior in high school.

“I got up with some people this one night and they asked me (to smoke), so I did,” Norton said. “Ever since then I’ve just been smoking.”

As an advocate for the use of marijuana, Norton said there is nothing wrong with it.

“I classify drugs as cocaine, meth, hydrocodone and pills and all that,” Norton said. “Weed is just a plant.”

The first bite of chocolate cake after a hit of marijuana tastes otherworldly or seems like a whole new experience altogether, at least that’s what Chris Conrad, internationally known cannabis expert, had to say about the drug’s effect.

Those experiences combined with its criminality have drawn American culture to the plant that goes by many names.

“The culture of marijuana, historically, has been the priests, the philosophers, the artist, some of the great thinkers of the world (who) have been involved in the use of cannabis,” said Conrad, who is recognized by the United States government for his expertise on cannabis. “Its ability (is) to give people relaxations, new insights, more distance from their problems, more peace of mind and just a sense of happiness and discovery. It makes life seem like a new experience, something like it never was before.”

One of the appeals of using marijuana is the experiences people have while smoking pot. Generally, it is like nothing they have every experienced before, Conrad said.

For Conrad, the problem lies in not only the judicial system, but in the perception society has on this very profitable plant.

He said the obsession with marijuana is in the illegality of the plant, not the drug itself.

“Since the United States government has declared war on a plant, it has made it the most valuable plant in the world so people’s entire livelihood are based not on the normal use of cannabis, but its illegality,” Conrad said. “This is the most used plant in the history of the earth. One of the most highly prolific and productive plants.”

The people who make and enforce the laws on marijuana are some of the biggest users, Conrad said.

“Embracing hypocrisy in order to create a false sense of morality and to hold others to a stand where the ones who are creating these laws themselves can’t follow,” Conrad said. “I don’t think it’s good for society.”

But Conrad said he believes for the laws on weed to change and become what they should be, it would take a lot of people admitting they were wrong. Furthermore, he said the negative light shed on weed makes it hard for people to understand the benefits.

“It’s the way that the media chooses to glamorize and sensationalize this issue that created the problem in the first place,” Conrad said. “The media in the country is not mature enough to competently discuss this issue in general; it’s always looking for something sensational and frightening to stick into everything.”

Arguing against the use and the good aspects of marijuana, Ken Wilson, certified addiction counselor and master addiction counselor, said although marijuana can make you feel very good, it really is harmful to people’s physical and mental health.

“Pot actually is a pretty dangerous drug,” Wilson stated. “And I’ve smoked my share of it.”

One of the reasons Wilson said pot is so dangerous is not only from the cases he has seen as a counselor, but also from his own personal experiences and struggles.

“Thirty years after smoking my last joint I was in practice, years ago, and somebody turned in their last three little joints and asked if I could get rid of them for them, and I said sure,” Wilson said. “I stuck them in my drawer not even thinking about it and a day turned into a week turned into a month, turned into months. Every once in a while I’d think about going in there and taking me a toke off of one of them.”

As a competent worker and an average citizen, Norton, the anonymous marijuana advocate, sees nothing wrong with smoking weed everyday.

“I just like it; I like the smell of it,” Norton said. “I consider it less dangerous than alcohol and I just prefer to smoke.”

Although Norton admits to smoking weed close to ten times a day, he said he is not addicted to the plant.

Wilson summed up the reason people like to smoke weed and do drugs: They don’t like the way they feel. For him, getting away from problems by using a substance is much easier than dealing with the issues they are faced with on a daily basis.

“We do stupid things when we are high that we wouldn’t do if we weren’t high,” Wilson argued. “The real issue, as far as I’m concerned, is that, and why we need to change the way we feel about this drug. We as a culture are hitting pills and drugs and everything else, why don’t we start to exercise and meditate and talk out our problems?”