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Show 15 AGGIE sX$ LIFE MONDAY. APRIL 25.2005 Tales from a high school heartbreaker tled on the perfect idea yet, Dear Lindsay, so I'm happy to help. I am a 21 -year-old college Ask mid Yc Since this girl hasn't been junior who has been asked Shall Receive to college yet, why not get to to prom. I'm not even talkknow her better by showing ing A-Day Spring Formal her what life is like here at here, I'm talking high school USU? Casually invite her to prom. To clarify my situacome to class with you in the tion, I barely even know this lindsaykite@cc.usu.edu next few days, but make sure girl, but she knows my mom to impress her with a big and decided I would be a you're feeling anxious now. good choice for some reason. After all, this may be the class, like maybe one in the When she called and asked best prom ever and a lasting ESLC auditorium during me, I buckled and said yes. relationship could form from finals. Now I don't know what to this romantic evening in the When she least expects it, do, but I really want to find school gym. run to the front of the room some way to get out of it Of course ! never had this and borrow the teacher's without hurting her feelings. problem, but when I had microphone to say "(insert How? friends who didn't get asked, name here), I have something Sincerely, High School they were crushed. Why pass 1 want to tell you and I want this up? Especially consider- everyone here to know it. Heartbreaker Dear High School ing you'll most likely be the YES! I will go to prom with oldest, coolest, most experi- you!" Heartbreaker, That way everyone will I have never heard of some- enced guy there. And if it's your old high know how coo! you are since one complaining about being asked to prom - especially school, you can do some none of them got asked and when there is only a week good catching up with all you did. If that is a little too until the dance and you those kids who were in junior bold for you, you can always steal her hubcaps and leave haven't had any other offers. high when you graduated. them on her bed with a note If I were you, I would stop Do your best to get rid of being so picky and let the those pre-prom butterflies by that says, "Yes, i WHEEL go age difference go. having a little more fun witn to the dance with you." Or, Those thoughts of wanting this thing. First of all, it does- there's also the option of to back out are just nerves. n't sound like you've official- mailing a pair of pants to her You don't know what to ly answered her yet to me! I witha note saying, "I would wear, you don't know what don't remember hearing any- ship my pants to go to the kind of corsage to get her,thing about trashing her bed- dance with you." Always a you don't know who will be room, surprising her atclassic. paying or if you'll have to school or making her dig Lindsay Kite is a junior meet the parents. We all get through a garbage bag full of majoring in print journalism. nervous before a big date, so pudding to find out if you've Questions, comments or still there is no need to worry said yes. no prom date? Contact Maybe you just haven't setabout saying no just because linasaykite@cc.usu.edu IF ONLY GETTING OUT OF GETTING INTO A NEW NISSAN You did it. You made it through Ihe hard times at college. Now, here's yourreward...and unlike most things in Irfo, it's pretty easy to obtain. Before your commencement ceremony, take a test drive in a new Nissan. Nissan Moior Acceptance Corporation has a unique, S/snaft/neGRADUATE' Financing Program for qualified new college graduates. You'll either get a terrific, low rate on a NISSAN ALT1MA Lindsay Kite Professor studies how people interact with their environment BY VALERIE TAKAHAMA The Orange County Register Professor Oladele Ogunseitan takes out a pen and draws four figures on a sheet of paper: a square, a circle, a triangle and a complicated squiggle. When he was a kid, Ogunseitan, who teaches at the University of California at Irvine, was fond of asking people he met to rank the shapes in order of preference to predict how well he'd get along with them. According to his test, someone who likes the square the best is an orderly, securityfocused person; the circle, a gentler soul; the triangle, an aggressive sort, and the squiggle his favorite - a creative type. "We tell mental stories about shapes. This is the simplest form," he says of his childhood quiz. Now a microbiologist and professor of social ecology, Ogunseitan hasn't stopped studying peoples preferences. Only these days, instead of circles and squares on a page, he's looking closely at how people feel about the world around them. It's called topophilia, the "affective bond" that people feel for a place. In his most recent research, published last month in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, he offered proof that there's a link between a person's environment and his or her sense of well-being, an idea that scientists have long believed but hadn't demonstrated. For the first time, Ogunseitan created a method to measure the strength of the relationship and identify the preferences of specific populations. His researchers asked 379 people on the UC Irvine campus to rate certain features in the urban environment such as trees and flowers, a sense of spaciousness or privacy, and colors and sounds. He then asked them about their mental well-being, as measured by the World Health Organizations Quality of Life survey. | . When he crunched the numbers, he found the environmental features that ranked highest were flowers and bodies of water such as lakes and oceans, while buildings or landscapes with complex designs and lots of textures were perceived as less calming or restorative. Seated at the Noguchi "California Scenario" Garden, an urban park bordered by mirrored bank towers in Costa Mesa, Ogunseitan says he envisions architects, landscape designers and planners using his method to create new public spaces that are healing and restorative to greater numbers of people. "Maybe you have only five minutes to spend here; does it really do you any good?" he asks, amid the garden's fountains and varied flora. "What my contributions do is show that this actually does help your quality of life." While topophilia is a common and widespread phenomenon, theories about it have sparked intense scientific debate. In the 1970s, biologist Edward O. 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