'Overflowing' the art gallery

There are always a couple art pieces at the Cerritos College art gallery that destroy the conventional "art."

In the "Over/Flow" exhibit, one of those pieces is of hacked video games.

At first, it makes you wonder what the point is. It's just some video games on a HDTV.

Then you see Mega Man go through those doors to get to the boss level. Suddenly, Mega Man multiplies by 1,000.

The TV also featured similar hacks to a Mortal Kombat game, a Street Fighter game, and Contra.

Another piece that was really interesting was a giant collage of what looks like magazine clippings.

It felt like a "Where's Waldo" book. Every five minutes you looked at it, you would find something new that you didn't see in it before.

Other impressive pieces were of iPod graphics and a 3-D twisting model.

9/11 ignored in blood drive

The fall semester is here and that means it's almost time for the school year's first blood drive.

The blood drive is set for Sept. 14 through 16, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

However, the drive is no longer referred to as the 9/11 blood drive.

Other blood drives have a theme to them. At the Valentine's Day drive, Rob Torrez likes to request that students "give from the heart."

Valentine's is a catchy and fun drive. 9/11 is more important in remembering the tragedy almost eight years ago.

Yes, 9/11 is old news, and that's why it's not called the 9/11 drive anymore. But the drive still remained special.

It's not that big of a deal. It's still the same blood drive. The fliers just don't have the drawing of the World Trade Center on them. However, it gave more meaning to the drive.

The last blood drive I gave at was a 9/11 one, and it felt good.

Financial Aid Event

The Financial Aid Office's event held today was hopefully very helpful to students.

Unlike other events where students will just walk by and ignore, unless there is an immediate incentive, this one had a nice spin to encourage students to ask questions at all the different booths.

The Leaders INvolved in Creating Change doesn't apply to everybody, just current and former foster youth, but it's still good information to know that it's there.

As long as students asked questions at all the different tables, they got a chance to win cool prizes.

Not only that, but the Financial Aid office got an effective way to receive feedback for this event.

With cards the students had to have stamped at all the different tables, they also had to fill out the surveys on the back to show what they learned today.

Any student that spent a couple minutes there had to have learned something.

Planned vandals

Tomorrow at 9 p.m. is the planned vandalism on Cerritos College by two individuals that go by different names than their own.

No matter how this goes down, it should be interesting.

Campus police has been notified of this and the vandals have showed no signs of canceling this.

The location isn't certain.

The only information the Talon Marks has received are letters that try to justify vandalism.

You can't justify it.

Tax dollars have went into building this school. If the state wanted your "art" on its walls, the state would have asked you.

Would you like if someone spray-painted your front door?

JACC State Convention 2009

There were a few things that I enjoyed from this year's state convention.

The first one was a workshop about how to be an editor without killing anyone.

The adviser from Cal State Sacramento didn't listed common problems that editors face constantly.

She didn't give any real solutions, but she gave ways to deal with them.

It's a thankless job, but we have to deal with it.

I'm waiting for an e-mail with her PowerPoint presentation on it.

I also enjoyed the page layout competition. The comments left on my entry say that I would have been a finalist if I didn't accidentally use the libelous story.

I should have took more time to read them so I could've caught the anonymous source.

You live and learn though.

The convention also had shuttles on Saturday going to the state capitol building.

That was fun to walk around in there.

This was definitely one of my favorite conventions I've been to.

SLO Committee

Bryan Reece acted as chair of an Student Learning Outcomes Committee in the fall semester as a taskforce.

The Faculty Senate is requesting it become an official committee.

The purposes of the committee include:
- overseeing the SLO strategy for Cerritos,
- providing support to individuals and programs on campus that need assistance with developing and assessing SLOs.
- suggesting college-level resources to support SLOs,
- coordinating with other groups doing SLO work,
- overseeing SLO assessments for the AA/GE, career and technical, transfer, developmental education programs and institution and
- monitoring trends and practices on issues within the committee's scope and communicating them to the college.

An SLO Committee sounds essential for Cerritos College.

Expanding SLOs is one of the eight required improvements for Cerritos.

A special committee dedicated to this could just be the trick.

Ismael de Anda III in art gallery

There are two points in the Ismael de Anda III art display at the Cerritos College art gallery that are very interesting.

The first is in the smaller room, the entire room is more than just art, it tells a story. The story was about the porch swing at his grandparents' ranch that he always remembered.

It tells the story of how it was destroyed and rebuilt. And he made different kinds of art (models, text, pictures) to tell the story in different ways.

The second is that a couple of his artworks encourages participation from others.

The large painting on the wall (that was painted directly on the wall), he didn't paint. But he instructed the art staff on how to paint it.

There's also a large frame (which he also painted on the wall), that he's encouraging viewers to drive a nail into it along the frame.

It'll be very interesting to see it when it's finished.

The exhibition datets are from Feb. 24 to March 24.

The opening reception will be on Feb. 25 at 6 p.m.

The artist's walkthrough will be on March 10 at 3 p.m.

Editors Day

Talon Marks adviser Rich Cameron held an Editors Day for college papers in the area to come to Cerritos and have discussions about the issues we face on a campus newspaper.

I found it very informative and I enjoyed talking with the other editors.

I learned a few tips on how to promote the MySpace page better, wish friends happy birthdays. It draws them to your page.

I also got a few notes down on some page designs for TalonMarks.com.

Right now, I'm glad that I was able to create all the section pages. Now, I want them each to have their own visual style.

It was fun to listen to controversial material that other papers published that made our stories not seem so bad.

Cosmetology in a new light

I have looked at the list of services the Cosmetology Department has to offer but never considered going here to get a haircut.

Considering a haircut at SuperCuts is about $15, a $5 haircut at Cerritos doesn't seem so bad.

It sounds great, actually.

The department should explain on its fliers how it operates.

How many students really know that advisers watch over students to make sure everyone is comfortable?

That has to be the main concern of everyone that doesn't want their hair cut by a student.

The department's hours aren't great, but a lot of students should be able to squeeze in a visit between classes.

The hours are:
• Monday and Wednesday, 11:30 to 3:30 p.m.,
• Tuesday and Thursday, noon to 3:30 p.m. and
• Friday and Saturday, 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Maps for the campus

Discussions took place at this week's ASCC Cabinet meeting to put up signs throughout the Cerritos College campus with maps on them.

The reason for this is because the signs with arrows now aren't very helpful.

That's true, they're not. They provide a guide to let you know you're heading in the right direction, but they're not very detailed.

Maps around campus are a good idea.

Maps are already on the Talon Marks newsstands, however.

They need to be updated, but they're already there.

Plus, they're black and white drawings. If they are to be updated, they could use come color to attract the eye and be more noticeable for people that are lost.

There's an alternative for the ASCC instead of spending money on new signs.