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Show irjj Pld u , favorite movie and pretend it has something. to do with the subject at hand; you and your students will benefit from the distraction, and you can pass on the burden of interpretation to your students in the form of an analytical essay. Administrators, you are al- t , 17.,; - , BY LOGAN. STOTT provide a relieving counterbalance, an occasional secession of responsibility ready failing spectacularly, so keep it up. Writer and comedian H. Jon Benjamin's 'Failure is an Option: An Attempted Memoir' provides a mantra contrary to our innate need for success; antithetical to p and inspiramost tional stories out there says that failure, rather than being a chance to learn from our mistakes, is a viable option that can lead to a better, less stressful life. The memoir presents a view of Benjamin who, while best known as the voice of titular characters Archer and Bob on animated shows 'Archer' and 'Bob's Burgers,' should also be known as a man who has achieved some from your life. modicum of professional Overburdened students, instead of pulling success while also failing Stott Logan For some, particularly in a competitive and stressful environment like college, there is a crippling drive to succeed. Failure can seem like a harsh derailment from that drive, a g misstep on the path toward perfection. There is an alternative to the constant stress and anxiety that can result from rolling the metaphorical boulder of collegiate or professional success uphill for eternity: You can fail. In moderation, failure can never-endin- to study for midterms and write essays, watch movies and spend time with friends. Those important tasks will still be there when you get back, and procrastination can be the springboard you need to complete those tasks minutes before the deadline. Perfectionist professors, instead of planning impeccable lectures, put on your oLOr01.zii(t) fj';1E7.i-,-;4.'.-i,107(ji...4- Send letters to the editor to DixieSundixie. edu. Letters to the editor are accepted and may be published in the newspaper andor dixiesunnews. corn. The guidelines for letters are as follows: Submissions should be no longer than 250 words and must be Writers must include name, phone number and email address. Students should also include year in school, hometown and major. Letters are subject to editing for length, style and grammar. Letters consisting of inaccurate, libelous or highly offensive content will not be published. Letters should be submitted to dixiesundixiaedu in the body of the email, not an attachment. Letters become property of Dixie Sun News and may be published in any format. Dixie Sun News enwell-writte- n. courages a lively discussion on its website among its readers. Dixie Sun News does not edit comments. However, an editor will not post any comments that are libelous or vulgar. self-hel- constantly. Benjamin does not hide his inabilities, negative traits, mistakes and misdeeds instead, he pours a circle of literary kerosene around them and lights it on fire providing a halo of smelly emphasis around parts of his life that most would do anything to keep hidden from public consumption, and in so doing offers hope and OV ri Di ro, L';' E IJ ) -- A I ) 1 reassurance that failure is a r natural state for many, and can even be an acceptable and freeing outcome. While presented the memoir has no contiguous plot. Each chapter serves as a retelling of self-contain- a particular failure among a catalog of failures, whether it be Benjamin's desperate attempt to suppress explosive diarrhea while speeding down the highway toward Pasadena, or failing to convince a French actor that, despite being a bald white American, he is not Bruce Willis. Themes of careless procrastination, cringe-inducin- 4 , g bouts of humiliation, and moments of severe danger interspersed with hapless incompetence resurface like plastic in ,4,14 the Pacific, but rarely felt repetitive. A The writing is often interspersed with jokes and anecdotes, and humorous but often disgusting details that sicken and entertain, like jabs to the belly, that left me in pain from both laughter and sudden onsets of sickening anxiety. While some stories, ironically, failed to pull me in right away, on the whole, as a fellow practi- tioner of frequent failure, I 1 , , 0C) z F') 1 1 zr.' ... it provided an entertaining glimmer of hope. I came away feeling that I might also stumble my way into success, or at the very least be able to live , Most books tend toward the idea that perfection is unattainable but somehow required. With H. Jon Benjamins "at tempted memoir" "Failure Is An Option," this ideology is put to the test. ,.,, with any glint of squandered potential, if indeed there was any to begin with. Benjamin helped me contend myself with the knowledge that failure is neither something to seek out nor avoid, but is rather a neutral concession that can provide a semblance of relief from the tedium of a success-drive- n world. Local public transportation, not efficient, needs improvements 1 : - I BY KELLY SEATON kellyseaton DSN Life is busy, especially in college. You balance classes, clubs, potentially even a job. It's a constant stream of travelling from school to work, from work to home, and from home to school again. Maybe you have a car, maybe you don't, but gas is expensive and cars are hard to maintain. So you decide to start taking the bus. It's cheaper and easy to access. Except, it's not that simple. The public transportation system in St. George is extremely hard to use and needs to be improved upon. In a city like St. George, good public transportation is an absolute must. The city is built so spread out with businesses few and far between, but the Suntran buses don't even reach a third of the surrounding areas like Bloomington and Washington Fields. This creates an evident problem; residents living in these areas are either stranded or left walking. This leads into another issue presented by the public transportation system: the time gap between i "0"''''',7r"?k! my". .. , ' I ' , , .. .. ... , - ,':!'-' 1. -- '' ,.. .. ....... 4 .. ' , .. t, .onen rt, , ' , , ' , ..1 t ., i 7. 38 ..'" , 1 . t' ! tak ,.,... , 1 , ...- , ,, , - i , , ' - . ' - ,, ci'",,' '', s ,. , ,,.. . ,,,..,,-,.,,,,,-f .. 1I ,. ...".' .,,,,.A, ''''' .. A . , t. .. ,,,, . 0,. ' ... t - , i - '', - :'. i''''' ,' A oik, "'.. 1,,4 ..., t tft 1 ' 3 t stops. There are six busses in St George; Across those six busses, there are 95 stops. While it may seem like a lot, it doesn't work as it should. There's a gap between each time the bus loops around to the same spot. That leaves a lot of waiting for the rider, mostly resulting in either being half an hour too early or twenty minutes too late to whatever event you were riding the bus for. It's beyond inconvenient for customers, it's impractical for a city growing as fast as St. George. This wouldn't be as much of a complication if there were other working alternatives to the bus , , , , ., 0m, t. .. .. ,. .. . ,... ..... ,,, ..,,. ,,, , , te St. George's busses are free to students with a student ID. Although the routes are pretty expensive, with the growing amount of people and places, the local public transporation system is falling short. in St. George. Other cities have similar bus times and routes, and also have viable alternatives to the bus. Take Irvine, California, for example. While only having around 55 routes, there's also an Amtrak train system and a Metro link. In St. George, the bus is the only public transportation local residents have. While apps like Uber and Lyft provide cars and trans portation to paying customers at rates significantly lower than taxis, there's only 7 Ubers and eight Lyft vehicles throughout the entirety of Washington County. Plus, they cost a lot more than public transportation. St. George needs to implement a better bus system. Add more routes extending to further parts of St. George and Washington County, and add more stops to the existing routes. Beyond that, recruiting more drivers and adding more buses to the existing routes would create would increase availability and ease for students looking to ride the bus. It's great that St. George has a public transportation system that's easy to access, but it could be greatly improved upon. , |