Ever since the newly refurbished Roth Quad dining center opened, there has been a never-ending waiting line for greasy cheeseburgers and chocolate Frosties. But on Tuesday night, this eatery adopted a whole new cultural vibe.

Bollywood night was the theme. Many students were pleasantly surprised by the events taking place and were also shocked that the campus was so diverse.

“I ran upstairs when I saw this, and I felt so happy,” said Arjun Lagestty, a junior computer science and mathematics major. “I felt part of being in this culture and now I’ve truly felt part of being in U.S.A.”

This Indian themed night was full of lively belly dancers, traditional folk music and a feeling of cultural appreciation. “America is accepting the culture and we are being respected,” Lagestty said with a large smile on his face. “It makes people feel more at home.”

The traditional band, made up of two percussionists, a keyboardist, and a male and female singer, pumped out tunes all night. Heads nodded up and down and feet tapped as the band played traditional music and took requests.

Draped in an elegant pink and silk traditional Indian dress, the alto-pitched singer finally took her well-deserved break, and made way for the tantalizing belly dancers. As their hips swayed back and forth to the beat, onlookers cheered and whistled in approval.

Cesar Acosta, a psychology senior said he didn’t even know about this event, but once he sat down to see what was going on, he couldn’t take his eyes off the stage. “I’m really enjoying this,” he said, “especially these beautiful belly dancers.” He grinned and stroked his goatee. “These events are great for the campus though. It allows people to experience things they normally wouldn’t even care about.”

Along with the singing and dancing, this cultural event gave people the opportunity to let their artistic sides shine. At the arts and crafts tables, students painted ceramic elephants and cows, created replica Rangoli sand-paintings, and even got spiraled Henna tattoos printed on their hands by professionals.

The Henna tattoos were one of the shining attractions at this event. The line for the tattoos became so long that a sign-up sheet was made to clear the cluttered area.

After people had their fill of arts and crafts and the music was back on, they could try some traditional Indian food; the scent enticed anyone’s nose the second they entered the building.

“They actually had Indian food, which was cool because I was expecting to get mac-and-cheese at the market and bought Indian food instead,” said Waseque Qazi, junior.

While some people didn’t even look the slight bit phased by the events taking place in front of them, others showed their gratitude with large smiles and applause.

“I’m really excited for the campus because we are growing as a community,” said Qazi. “It shows diversity and shows how we can all respect each other and celebrate other people’s cultures.”




Bollywood night went off without a hitch. Students seemed to enjoy every bit of the the festivities at Roth Quad. In my opinion, the music was a little too loud for my taste and they never took a break. I did feel like some students were a little annoying with the constant blasting of music, but those who didn't want to stay, took their food and went back to their rooms.

Even though the university opened up an Indian cuisine spot in the eatery, most of the people went straight for their lard infested Wendy's line, which wrapped around the numerous times. People in this school tend to zone out and ignore the festivities and ceremonies that the school has put right in front of them. Lack of interest and a low attention span could easily be the two main factors for low attendance and gratitude at these events. The school has done well to promote for these events by post up fliers everywhere and internet notifications, but it really doesn't matter.

People make their own decisions to whether they want to open up their minds to different groups and ideological vies and values. You can't force diversity and acceptance down people's throats...people have to want to understand and learn.

It's a cold world out there...sometimes I feel like I'm getting a little frosty myself...

SNL Palin

It's been an ongoing skit on the most recent Saturday Night Live shows this season. Tina Fey portraying Sarah Palin. I've seen all of them and they are actually pretty amazing; due to the great performance my Tina Fey. Last week, the show actually had the real Palin on during two skits. First, the opening scene where Alec Baldwin thinks he is talking to the fake Palin, but is actually talking to the real Palin. She was in the weekend update sketch. During this scene, Amy Pholler sang a rap about Palin, while the republican vice presidential candidate danced and "raised the roof". It was very funny, but it seemed weird that she would happy about them making fun of her. I hope they keep doing these sketches because Fey does a spot on Palin and does her little quirks really well.

Here is the link to the weekend update rap provided by NBC.com

Final Debate

The final Debate at Hofstra was the best one so far. There was a ton of action and it was very intersting to see how each candidate would do under the pressure of the last event.

It seemed as if McCain was challenging Obama all night and he was pretty much attacking him the entire time. Obama seemed a little startled by this tactic and was on the defensive the entire debate. The whole Joe the plumber idea was getting a little annoying repetitive. Also, I really didn't like how McCain was crying for like ten minutes about how Obama never refuted any of the harsh comments people made about McCain. He only said this because he did it once in the last debate. I felt like Obama was clear and crisp as usual. He issues on health care and the economy were very strong, which McCain seemed to turn away for his plans to say how bad Obama's where.

I felt like in the other debates McCain had the upper hand. Last night showed America how strong Obama really is and who should be the next leader of our country. I'm very excited for the election and watching this debate showed me why I have faith in Barack Obama.

Kimberly Dozier

On Oct. 6, Kimberly Dozier spoke in front of a packed audience at SUNY Stony Brook. Dozier, who worked for CBS News, was involved in a car bombing in Baghdad on July 4, 2006. Two of her crew members died from the explosion, but she survived with a list of injuries. Her crew was doing a piece on the U.S. army and how the men were on the 4th of July. She said she heard a loud bang and then everything went black. She had shrapnel lodged in her brain and had to get two titanium rods in her legs. The seconds she woke up in the hospital she wanted to know what happened to her crew.

Dozier tried to write a letter to see where they were and it came out as just scribble. Her rehabilitation process was long and arduous. But she is now fully recovered and is a great speaker. She is thankful to be alive but doesn't let the past affect her future. She has written a book and is trying to go back overseas.

Her story is very touching and is very inspiring for anyone, especially a journalism student.

Website Critique

The first website we are going to look at is the New York Post's website. I don't normally go to this site to get my daily news, but since we have started this class, its kind of grown on me.



This site jumps out at you immediately the second you open the page.




This website is extremely accessible and has many "Web 2.0" features to it. The first thing that entices the viewer is the front story, which at this time, happens to be about Sarah Palin being portrayed on Saturday Night Live. Some positive things about this website are the constant updating news alerts, weather and time bug, mass amounts of pictures and video footage, blogs and RSS feeds.

One of the more enhanced features of this website is the banner.

This banner has the a lot of great features. Along with the newspapers logo, it has the weather and time bug, a link to their classified sections(cars, real estate, jobs and dating), an add that goes to a top story on the website and a search bar that allows you to search the web or their website, and even dig into their archive.

The only thing that I really didn't like about their site is the fact that it seems very cluttered and everything on the front page is mashed together. It seems like they want to squeeze every last detail of the day into their front page. Overall, this site is broken down very professional, and any average user, who wants quick and up to date information, should definitely take a look at www.nypost.com.

For my TV news choice, I selected FOX News.

This site has definetly made a huge overhaul since the last time I visited. The last time I checked this page was about five months ago. At that time, the site was terrible. They didn't have many Web 2.0 features and the site lacked structure. It was extremely tough to navigate and after going to the site a few times, it made me never want to check back up on it.

Now, this site has taken on a whole new design. It is much more clean-cut and they have added many new features.

The overall look of this site now makes it more affable for the average viewer. Features like blogs, comments, RSS feeds, videos, pictures and round the clock updating articles makes this website very user friendly. The navigation of Fox's site is extremely easy and it givers you numerous options to click on.

One of the best features on this web site is about half-way down on the page. This feature is a box with four tabs on the top: Latest News, Most Read, Top Videos and Urgent Queue.
This box is great for anyone wants quick information and doesn't have time to sift through all the articles and videos posted on the site. Fox has thought about the user rather than themselves for once.

On the downside, the two adds for Courtyard Marriot interact with each other. By this, I mean that a man pops out of the banner ad and reaches down to and points to the ad on the lower right hand side of the main page. This is very distracting and it seems a little unnecessary. All in all, I was pleasantly shocked with the way this website was constructed. The Fox website has all the great user features that I would need, and its has made itself look like a presentable website.

For my blog choice, I selected the DrudgeReport.


The Drudge gets a ton of daily hits. This site is what is known as an aggregator. An aggregator site is a site that has a consumption of many news articles from different websites and they are all put together by a blog, which in turn tells the viewer which articles are the most important to read. I for one, go to drudge on numerous occasions daily. They are one of the fastest out there for breaking news information and the site doesn't leave you with many unanswered questions.

This blog is pretty much as straight forward as it gets. There is usually a small banner ad on the top of the page and then straight links to articles after that. They always have a headline story and giant picture to catch your attention, but that is most likely the only catchy thing your going to get with this site. There is nothing on this site but links, the website's name, an average of two to three ads per visit and many news links. The Drudge doesn't give the user many Web 2.0 features, but when you are going to this blog, you should already know what you are going to get. This is a site for people who only want the top headlines. The drudge doesn't do much reporting at all(they do break news from time to time), but the site works. It's bland and stagnant look makes for a more serious atmosphere. As someone who goes to this site everyday, my judgment might be a little biased, but there is a reason that this blog gets so many hits a day, and the reason is consistency.

I don't feel like the Drudge has that much of a negative side to it. The only thing I can think of is the design. Many people don't like going to the site because it is so mundane, but I think that is one of the main reasons that I go there. I don't need a flashy website for my news coverage. I want interesting articles to read, and a few pictures to go with it.

Overall, I would have to say that all three of these websites were all well put together and they all have a ton of viewers. Both FoxNews and the Post's websites were very easy to navigate through and they had options for every and any user. The DrudgeReport, which is only a blog, has limited movement and tools, but it gets the job done.

If I had to choose the best site out of the three, I would have to say that I give the FoxNews' website two thumbs up. They went from a low tier website to a presentable and fully functioning staple on the web. Their accessibility has greatly improved and I might end up checking back on their site more often.

McCain needs more time...

Today, Republican Presidentail nominie, John McCain announced that he wants to push back the first debate with Barack Obama and himself. His reasoning for this is that he thinks the financial crisis in our country should be handeled before the two of them debate. Obama went on record saying that he feels that this debate should go on as schedueled. I feel like Obama is right on this issue. I'm paraphrasing, but he said that one of them is going to be handling these issues in the next 40 days when they become president. It seems like McCain is just trying to gain a little bit more time to prepare himself for this debate.




Here is a link to the issue by the New York Times. Obama Rebuffs McCain's Plan.

Get Drunk...

Get Drunk...

My weekend started on Thursday night. I left Stony Brook and so began my weekend of drinking in Queens. I started off my weekend by going to Cherry Valley in Whitestone, and getting a Zee-Zoo, which is grilled chicken, bacon, onion rings and chesse on a garlic bread hero.

On Friday night, I went to Bell Blvd. and went to a bar called Montahans. At this bar, I witnessed a giant-fat kid fall ontop of a tiny girl on the dance floor. He literally crushed her. On Saturday, my friends and I went to Beer Garden in Astoria.