January 10, 2006

THe CapRE ¢ 2

Ray Keating Managing Editor

Well, here it is, the long awaited first Cadre of 2006. Let me open it up by saying welcome back, and thanks for picking up another issue. It’s my hope that the paper provides you with some information about what’s happening on campus, or at the very least, provides you with a few laughs. As always we still need contributors. If you like the content of the paper, come join the fun. If you have a problem with the content, throw your two cents worth in by contributing something yourself... either way, come on and get involved.

You'll notice a new look and feel to the Cadre this month. This is part of an overall change designed to make the paper more colorful, cost effective and visually appealing. These changes don’t stop with the print version either; a whole new look is coming to The Cadre Online as well. Keep checking back over the next week or so for a whole new site

But I Digress...

at http://cadre.upei.ca.

You might also notice a fair amount of space in this issue has been devoted to political issues. Shawn Murphy and the Liberal Party have bought space to spread their message in the hopes of being re-elected and there ate a couple of articles surrounding election issues. Obviously, we at The Cadre don’t officially support any one candidate or party. What we do support is the process in general. As students, we ate faced with some huge financial issues; student loans, education funding, taxes, you name it... it all affects our

ability to pursue our educations and get .

on with our lives. Here’s the kicker... if you don’t get out and vote on Election Day, you have no business complaining about anything that happens in our country. Don’t like the direction things are going with environmental issues?... get out and vote. Want better sepecsen for your issues whatever they are?... get out and vote. Our parents, grandparents, great-

grandparents and ancestors before them fought and sometimes died to preserve our rights and our ability to choose who will represent us in government. It’s a privilege, a right and a duty all at once... get out and vote.

Next week also marks Academic Integrity week here on campus. Students and faculty alike will be taking part in

~ events around campus to bring the whole

issue to light. A schedule of events is posted in this issue, take the time to get out and see what the concept of Academic Integrity means to your profs and your peers.

The next editorial will be brought to you from Toronto where our Copy Editor, Rob Walker and I will be attending the Canadian University Press National Conference. Hopefully we’ll both come back refreshed and with some new ideas to improve the quality of the paper, both in content and appearance.

That’s all for now... don’t forget... get out and vote.

Right Here and Now

Rob Walker Copy Editor

I would like to start off this new years edition of my column by apologizing for some errors that were in the last issue of the Cadre. It’s my job to make sure all the words and sentences look all pretty like in our fine paper, and I messed up (with my own column, no less).

Anyone reading my little rant about how much the new X-box 360 game console was going for on e-bay might have noticed that instead of dollar amounts, I had X’s. This is because I put those in as placeholders so I could wait to get the latest numbers, and pretty much just forgot to put them in. So Pll say I’m sorry and get that all out of the way.

Last year was pretty good, I passed most of my courses (and found out the one I failed wasn’t a required course anyway for my degree, score) and made a bunch of new friends. Aww. We also made some pretty big changes behind the scenes here at the Cadre, which I’m sure you'll notice as time goes on. I say ‘we’, but really the credit should go to Ray Keating, our debonair editor in chief, or “skippy” as we call him (Well we don’t call him that, but we should)).

I was going to make some funny new years resolutions or something, but after a weird winter break I pretty much only have one, and it’s got a story behind it. So bear with me:

It’s about 4am sometime mid- December and my friends and I have been drinking for going on 12 hours now. You know how it goes, old friends come in for winter break, you catch up, beer gets drunk, etc. At this point I’ve kicked everyone out except two really good friends of mine who I haven’t seen for a

while. We live at Browns Court facing the Ave. and the guys were having a cigarette just outside the door, waiting for a cab.

It was about 15 snow covered feet from my door to the sidewalk, and after a couple minutes go by we watched a bunch of guys our age walk and giggle their way past us, doing the usual ‘rowdy at 4am on a saturday’ thing. We thought nothing of it, continuing our conversation, when a skinny guy in his early 20’s (wearing only a t-shirt in -2 degree weather) holding a pair of knives

runs up to us.

“Hey - puff puff - can you guys call the

cops?”

My friends and I, obviously wary of this endeavour, ask a simple question: “WHAT?!”

crazy guy with knives: “Those guys stole my co(atokecough.” (he says something unpronounceable)

me: “Um...they stole your coat?”

crazy guy with knives: “Yeah man they

stole my coke, call the cops please!” me:

“Wait, what? What’s going on?” — cgwk: “Please man, let me call the cops..” me: “Um, well ok man, but you can’t come in and call the cops with those knives.” (crazy guy drops knives)

me: “So what’s going on?”

cg: “THOSE GUYS STOLE MY

COKE!” ... At this point I don’t know —

whether to laugh or cry for the guy, so I decide to do the right thing and be a nice

guy: ‘ , me: “Wait man, wait-”

cg: “NO NO man we have to call the cops!”

me: “Seriously, wait a second man...” , cg: “Can I just call the cops.” me: “Are you telling me-”

cg: “Let me call them man! [Pll pay you $100 to call the cops.”

me: “STOP FOR A SECOND. Are you seriously telling me you want me to call the cops and tell them some guys stole your cocaine?”

cg: “Well, theyll get in trouble. They have it on them.”

me: *sigh* The guy proceeds to haggle with us for a bit, and all three of us are just a few sheets to the wind and having no part in his escapades, so we deny his cry for a phone call. Fuck that, the phone’s all the way in the kitchen and then he’s in the house!

cg: “Well what am I going to do? Pm in serious trouble!”

me: “I guess you should have thought of that before you started, y’know, dealing coke.” He then cries: “Well fuck then, I guess I’m going to die!”, scoops up his knives (long flimsy meat-cutter style knives, for those curious) and runs off into the cold, dark winter night.

So my new years resolution?

Yeah, don’t be that guy.